Starcraft: Warriors of Purity

by Xarmar13

Rating: teen
Tags: Anthro, Lyra, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Science Fiction, Bon-Bon, Adventure, Starcraft, Gore, Crossover, Alternate Universe, Human
Length: 233680

Bon Bon and Lyra are sent to the Koprulu Sector on a quest for vengeance.

Sweetie Drops was a former agent of the former Equestrian intelligence agency known as S.M.I.L.E. After the agency was destroyed and its agents murdered by their benefactor, Prince Blueblood, Sweetie went into hiding under the alias of Bon Bon, Ponyville's local candy maker.

Blueblood publicly denounced the agents as rebels against the princesses in a political move to advance his position among the nobility while the public was made to believe the lies made to tarnish the fallen agents' reputations.

Years after the incident, Sweetie could not forget the atrocities that Blueblood had committed and she felt an increasing desire to avenge her comrades.

Discord gives her that chance.

In exchange for participating in eight years of galactic wars, Sweetie will gain the means necessary to right the wrongs that Blueblood has committed.

Lyra will be there to support her every step of the way.

This story will cover Starcraft 1, Brood War, and all 3 campaigns of 2.

Published 2019-05-17 14:40:01 UTC
Last updated 2019-09-20 23:32:35 UTC

Prologue

A mare, wounded by gunfire, stands in the middle of a burning room that was what remained of her beloved agency's headquarters. The mare looked at the other side of the room and sees the silhouette of a stallion pointing his pistol at her.

The mare was a cream colored earth pony with a mane and tail colored navy with a fuchsia stripe and arctic blue eyes. She was wearing a business suit that was badly damaged from recent battles and stained in places with her blood.

The only features seen on the stallion is the formal tuxedo generally worn by nobility and a horn.

The stallion was smirking as he savored the moment as he mare slowly limped toward the stallion.

Debris was beginning to fall into the room as the flames continued to roar.

The mare continued to limp toward the stallion with a dangerous look in her eyes; eyes that reflect betrayal, despair, and hatred toward this stallion. She wanted nothing more than to watch him writhe in agony for the atrocities that he has caused. However, the closer she was to the stallion, the farther away he was. She could not reach him in the state that she was in.

The stallion lowered his weapon and gave her a wicked grin before speaking. "Once again the little mud dweller struggles in futility to reach me. Why not crawl on your belly as you try to approach me like the rest of your filthy kind? Better luck next..."

The stallion was interrupted as a blast of magic hit him and destroyed his form. Nothing remained of the stallion as another form entered the burning room.

The mare stared at the place the stallion stood and observed as another form came into focus. This form was a tall mare with a dark blue coat and an ethereal mane and tail of different shades of blue and turquoise eyes. The form was also wearing an elegant-looking silver dress. The mare saw the long horn and wings and realized that she was looking at Princess Luna.

Luna looked into the burning room and saw the wounded mare. With a gasp, she rushed into the room as debris was starting to fall more frequently. She quickly grabbed the mare and dashed quickly out of the room as it was beginning to collapse.

Luna took the time to wait for the mare to calm down and held her in a gentle embrace. When the mare was finally calm enough to think rationally, Luna released the mare from her arms.

"This is the fourth time this week that you have had nightmares about my sister's nephew. These dreams are becoming more frequent" said Luna, refusing to acknowledge any relation she may have to Prince Blueblood.

Luna knew that these dreams are tied to a tragic injustice that was committed by Prince Blueblood. Unfortunately, the princesses could not do anything about this as Blueblood had destroyed all evidence of his involvement in the atricity. The princesses cannot convict him without causing the majority of the noble houses, which are in support of Blueblood, to become outraged and would lead to a public spectacle.

Blueblood had founded the agency that the mare hailed from. The agency was named with the acronym S.M.I.L.E. While the agency was tasked with dealing with threats hidden from the public, Blueblood had another use for them for his agenda. Blueblood desired to gain more power in the political world and he used the agency to damage the reputations of, or simply eliminated, threats that might stand in the way of Blueblood and his advancement up the political ladder. One day, when Blueblood had a clear path to his house becoming the most powerful among the nobility, Blueblood decided to cut S.M.I.L.E. loose from his arsenal of political tools by publicly labeling the agency and its agents as rebels that seek to overthrow the princesses and tasking a band of elite soldiers into wiping out the "rebels." Blueblood was lauded as a hero by the public and this made his rise up the political ladder all the easier.

Luna continued, "Is there anything myself or my sister can do to ease thy pain? I know that thou would wish of us to enact severe punishment upon my sister's nephew, but alas, we cannot without removing the support of the noble houses and we cannot do so without proving his guilt. So, I must ask again, what can myself or my sister do to ease the burden of your pain, young Sweetie Drops?"

The mare, Sweetie Drops, let out a heavy sigh. "I appreciate your concern for my well being Princess Luna, but there is little that you can do to ease the pain of losing my comrades. Just knowing that you and Princess Celestia know the truth is enough for me. Besides, I have Lyra to support me in my darkest hours and I have told her the whole truth about my past. She has been my rock for the past five years that I have known her. I may be the only survivor of the S.M.I.L.E. tragedy, but I have friends who support me."

Luna gave a sad smile and placed a hand on Sweetie's shoulder. Luna lit her horn and the same glow enveloped Sweetie. A moment later, Sweetie's wounded form was healed and her outfit restored. "I am glad that you have friends who support you. If only we could do something about these nightmares that you are having" said Luna.

Luna felt a ripple in the dreamscape and felt the presence of another next to Sweetie's sleeping form. "It would appear that your friend Lyra is attempting to wake you. I will visit you another time in your dreams." With that, Luna vanished as Sweetie’s dream world faded away..

"Bonnie?" spoke the voice next to Sweetie's sleeping form. "Bonnie, wake up. I made breakfast today and we have to open the shop soon."

Sweetie groaned as she slowly woke from her disturbed slumber. "Morning Lyra," Sweetie said weakly as she was still trying to wake up. "What have you made today?"

Lyra was a light aquamarine unicorn with a light cyan mane and tail with white highlights as well as amber colored eyes. She was wearing a white blouse with a light blue jacket and skirt.

Lyra looked at her marefriend with concern. She is usually more energetic in the morning, but lately, she has had a hard time waking up in the mornings. "Eggs, toast, some hay bacon, an apple and some orange juice" Lyra responded then stared at Sweetie. "Are you alright Bonnie? I saw you moving around in your bed like you were in pain?"

"I'm fine Lyra" Sweetie responded. "Just a bad dream is all."

Lyra knew Sweetie long enough to know when she was downplaying her problems. She was aware that her marefriend was having nightmares in relation to her past as an agent and the unfortunate outcome of the incident. Lyra sighed, "This has been happening more often. I know you try to hide it, but I know this has been eating away at you. Has Princess Luna tried to help you with this?"

Sweetie sighed, "She has. Unfortunately, there isn't much that she can do about this. My memories and my anxieties blend together in my dreams and she can only partially affect my dreams since she cannot banish the parts based off of memory."

"Couldn't they use your dream as evidence against Blueblood? There has to be something that you can use against him" asked Lyra.

"Years ago, the courts deemed dreams to not be admissible as evidence due to their tendency for ambiguity. All other evidence of Blueblood's involvement with S.M.I.L.E. was burned away. His connections have even allowed him access to the hidden copies that we keep for emergencies. He was quite thorough in covering his tracks. I have told you this several times already Lyra" said Sweetie. Sweetie got out of bed and got out of her pajamas and into her work clothes and sighed. "Im sorry Lyra, I thought that I could put my past behind me and yet it haunts me even after five years since then. I just wish that there was some way that I could resolve this grudge that I have against Blueblood and deliver justice for my fellow agents." Sweetie sighed again "Come on Lyra, our breakfast is getting cold."

"So Discord, how is that flower garden that you have been tending?" asked Fluttershy.

"It is coming along quite nicely my dear" replied Discord. "I did have some concerns about the flowers though. For example, why do ponies call those tall flowers "sunflowers"? Part of their name is "sun," so why are they not sunny looking? I tried to see how the garden would appear with sunnier looking sunflowers and they really 'brightened' up my house." Discord chuckled at his own pun.

"Oh my!" replied Fluttershy, pouring a cup of tea for Discord and herself. "I would really like to
see what these sunflowers look like some time, if you don't mind."

"Not at all Fluttershy" replied Discord. "Just remember to bring some sunglasses and some extra sun protection when you come over and..." Discord paused. "Pardon me my dear, it would appear that it is time to advance the plot. Be back in a few minutes." With that, Discord disappeared from Fluttershy's house with a snap of his paw, leaving a confused Fluttershy behind.

Lyra and Sweetie finished their breakfast and put their dishes in the sink in time for the store to open. However, as Lyra touched the sign that shows the store's status as open or closed, she realized that she cannot turn the sign as somehow the sign was transformed to look like it was painted on the door. "Bonnie? When did we change our open sign to look like it was painted on?" Lyra asked.

"We didn't" Sweetie replied. She moved to the door to touch the sign and realized that she could not move it either. "What gives? Is this some kind of joke?"

"A small one, but yes" replied a voice that sounded masculine.

"That voice...is that you, Discord?" Sweetie asked.

Discord appeared in a burst of smoke. "Indeed it is I, Discord, The Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony" said Discord with a dramatic flair.

"Hey Discord" greeted Lyra "If I knew that you were coming, I would have set a place at the table for you."

"That is quite alright Lyra. I am currently on one of my weekly visits to Fluttershy's house" said
Discord.

Sweetie pinches the bridge of her muzzle as she feels a headache coming. "What do you want Discord? I am not in the mood to put up with this right now."

Discord smirked. "Poor, dear, tragic Bon Bon. Unable to get her revenge against some pompous Canterlot noble because the legal system cannot do a thing to him. Did you ever consider the vigilante route? Take matters into your own hands?" he said while putting on a sock puppet show to reenact the event and annoying Sweetie further.

Sweetie took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. "I have considered the option. However, since he has branded all S.M.I.L.E. agents as rebels, he can use that as an excuse to fortify his mansion's defenses. Even my training isn't enough to breach those defenses. It would take a lot more than just me to get the job done and my reputation as an agent is shot because of his propaganda."

"And so we come to the point of my visit my dear Bon Bon. How would like an opportunity to gain the means to avenge your coworkers?" Discord asked.

Sweetie scoffed. She can tell when Discord is making a dangerous deal since she did her research on the draconequus. She also knew that for a deal that does interest her, that she would need to gather any information about this deal before making a decision."I would say no because your deals with others have a tendency to have clauses in them that lead them through some harrowing ordeal. Be upfront with me Discord, what torment would you put me through for me to get what I want?"

"Oh, not much, all you have to do is survive for a few years and take part in a series of interplanetary wars over the course of about a little over eight years...give or take. This will take place in a galaxy far, far away and I am not talking about that one with the Jedi stuff" said Discord. That last part left Lyra and Sweetie confused.

Sweetie shook her head. "This seems like a lot of time and work to bring justice to one pony. There must be more to this that you have not told me."

"There is" Discord said. "But if I tell you more then I will be giving out spoilers. What I can
say is that if you succeed, then Equestria would be a more interesting place."

Sweetie closed her eyes as she considered Discord's proposal. In the one hand, there is a great risk that she could end up being killed. Seeing as the fact that Discord mentioned her taking part in wars over different planets. This would be an experience that may have never been experienced by anypony else, let alone herself and she will be putting her life on the line in the process. On the other hand, she would be able to put her past to rest and clear the names of her fellow agents.

Lyra looked at the thinking Sweetie and a slight frown appeared on her muzzle. She put a hand on her shoulder and interrupts Sweetie's thinking. "You aren't seriously considering his offer are you Bonnie? You could end up getting killed and I don't want to be left alone without you in my life."

Sweetie looked at Lyra and smiled. "You make it sound like I am helpless in a fight. You know that I went through some of the most intense training that can be offered in the Royal Guard. I have even mastered a number of different types of the new weapons called guns. I should be able to hold my own for this." Sweetie tried to reassure Lyra despite her own uncertainty in dealing with an unknown threat from beyond the stars.

Lyra's frown deepened and she snorted. "If you are planning on going through with this, then I am going with you. Nothing that you say will make me change my mind. Do you remember that Pinkie Promise that I made to you on the day that you told me about the past? I promised that I would help you in any way that I could if it would help you bring Blueblood to justice."

Sweetie remembered that day and how anxious that the promise made her feel because she may attempt something foolish to keep her promise. She was beginning to feel that this might be one of those times. She knew that Lyra had no combat training whatsoever and her aim with her magic was shaky at best which meant that a firearm in her hands would be too dangerous for herself and everyone around her.

"In that case, I would need to inform the two of you that if Lyra is going with you, then your journeys would be separate as the two of you will walk different paths to reach the same destination. Both of you fighting with the same kind of weapon would be boring after all" Discord explained. "Now, if the two of you are finished deciding..." Discord conjured a mirror with a frame large enough to fit a pony.

"Wait!" interrupted Sweetie, "What about the shop? We can't just leave all of a sudden and leave it unattended. You said that we would be gone for years. We can't leave the shop abandoned for eight years without ponies asking questions."

Discord stared at a watch that magically appeared on his talon. "You do not need to worry about the time. I can put a time dilation spell over Equus. Where you will spend eight years over there, only a few weeks will pass here. A month at the most." Discord started getting a little impatient as he wanted to get back to his time with Fluttershy quickly. "If it makes you feel any better, I will inform Fluttershy about what is happening here and she can take care of your house slash store while the two of you are away. Now will you please step through this? This is taking more time than needed."

Sweetie took a deep breath as she prepared herself for what may come. "Ready for this Lyres?" She knew that this was a bad idea and even worse given that Lyra will likely end up somewhere where she cannot help her if she ends up in a bad situation. She could only hope that Lyra would be able to hold her own until she found her again.

"Ready as I'll ever be Bonnie" Lyra replied. She tried to hide her anxiety and fear from Sweetie and doing a poor job of it as she knew that her Bon Bon could tell that she was scared from the shaking of her legs.

"One last thing you two..." Discord interrupted as the duo was about to cross into the mirror. "...I also wish to give Sweetie here a going away present: Something to help her out once she is powerful enough to access it." Discord produced a strange box that was producing the faint sound of glassware inside. He placed the box in a pocket dimension made for Sweetie.

"Uhh...thanks?" said Sweetie.

"Anything for me?" asked Lyra hopefully.

Discord made a large tome appear in his paw and gives it to Lyra. "This is a documentary on the alien race that you will become acquainted with as well as their customs. It should help you adapt to their culture if you play your cards right."

Lyra placed the tome in her own pocket dimension for safekeeping and thanked Discord for the book.

Sweetie walked up to the mirror and put a hand on it to see that it went into the mirror. Taking one last deep breath, Sweetie Drops walked into the mirror. Moments later the action was repeated by Lyra.

Author's Note

I started this story out of inspiration from other displaced stories. I don't think I found any Starcraft displaced stories that were still ongoing or complete on this site, so I am making an attempt at one.

Prelude: Sweetie Drops

Sweetie Drops slowly awakens, feeling pain all over her body. She has not felt pain this intense since that one time when she accidentally crashed into a market stall while practicing her parkour. She was intending on jumping off the sunshade but she overestimated the durability of the fabric and fell through.

Opening her eyes, Sweetie takes in her immediate surroundings. She appears to have landed in a grassy area in a place she does not recognize. One thing that she took note of, however, was the number of glowing orange crystals that were sticking out of the land from all around her immediate area. In the distance were a number of mountains which led her to believe that she was currently lying in a valley.

Sweetie closed her eyes and cringed as a painful headache suddenly made itself known to her. She has had migraines before, especially after a few of Lyra's antics where she harassed a number of the townsponies with her theories of creatures that she called 'Humans’. However, this headache was more painful than what she is used to experiencing. She was beginning to wonder if the crystals around her were radioactive or something. She couldn’t have hit her head too hard to warrant this kind of pain since her head wasn’t bleeding.

Slowly, she got up from her resting spot and began wandering around the valley searching for a way out of the field of glowing crystals while clutching her head in pain.

As she wandered, she saw what looked like a strange metallic structure in the distance and a small number of strange, moving metallic figures near the edge of the field of crystals. Moving in for a closer look, Sweetie discovered that the metallic figures were, in fact, vehicles being piloted by creatures of similar shape to herself, except that they were hairless and had no muzzle. One of the creatures, she noticed, was not piloting one of those vehicles. Upon studying him, she noticed that he had no tail and no mane. Some of the pilots had a mane, but only barely noticeable. “I wonder if these are the so called 'Humans' that Lyra has been going on about,” she wondered.

Suddenly, her instincts kicked in and she dove forward in time to dodge an attack from behind that would have made her head feel worse that it currently was. Sweetie quickly turned around to address the attacker. It was one of those creatures that she was observing.

This one was wearing a mechanical suit that made him look bigger than the creatures piloting the vehicles. The suit covered every inch of his body in thick metal while having words and images on parts of it. The head of the suit was a black dome that completely hid his face. There were also parts of the suit that were painted teal. The creature was carrying what appeared to be a large gun, one that was larger than anything that Equestria had invented.

Sweetie knew that she was in a tough situation since she was completely unarmed. She wished that she had her old equipment from her agency days, but she was forced to sell it off in order to buy the home that she and Lyra lived in. She could tell that she does not have the necessary strength to do anything to the suit so she could either flee or hope that they speak the same language. “Who and what are you!?” Sweetie asked.

The creature stood there for a moment before replying. “So, you can speak english, huh? That makes things easier. I could ask you the same thing. Ya look like a cross of a horse and a human.” The creature, who from the sound of his voice was male, paused for a moment. “How ‘bout this, you come with me peaceful-like and I won’t have to put a bullet in your head for spying on our operation.”

Sweetie considered her options. She could flee while using the crystals for cover. The creature may not be very smart, but she was not willing to bank on that chance. She was also woefully lacking on info on her present situation. All she knew was that she was in a field of possibly radioactive crystals and she has a creature, who may or may not match Lyra’s description of a Human, pointing a weapon at her. She needed more info before she could decide on how she was going to survive her current and future ordeals. Going with him would be the best choice at the moment and if these creatures prove as unfriendly as this guy, she has been known to improvise in tough situations.

She stood up straight and stared at the large-looking person and raised her arms in surrender. “Alright, I’ll go with you” she answered.

Sweetie was escorted to the site she was observing earlier. Some of the people in the vehicles spent a few moments from their work to stare at her before she was brought aboard the massive structure and thrown into a barred cell that was locked with a keypad.

The armored person closed the cell door on Sweetie and took a moment to remember the code to lock and unlock the cell. “Let’s see...it was 83019 if I remember right.” The door locked with a click and the armored person walked away.

Sweetie’s eyes widened in shock as she thought: “Is he really that stupid that he told me the code to the lock or did I just read his mind somehow?” She decided to keep the information in her mind for later.

An hour later, a door at one end of the room opened and another of the creatures walked in. Based on the body type, this one appeared to be female. She was wearing a white lab coat, a green shirt and black leggings.

The person walked up to Sweetie’s cell and began to address Sweetie. “Greetings, I am the medical officer on this ship. My name at this time is unimportant. You may refer to me as “Doctor.” We have some questions for you and depending on your answers and how truthful you are, we will either kill you where you stand or leave you on a fringe world somewhere” the doctor said as she was reading whatever message was shown on the device in her hand. “My apologies, the commander who is in charge of the operation is busy overseeing the operation and has left me in charge of your interrogation.”

Sweetie raised an eyebrow to that last part as it made no sense for a medical officer to be put in charge of a task that was best left to someone more professional. “Are these guys so short handed that they would put anyone to a task they aren’t qualified to do?” she thought.

“Ugh...Why am I being made to do this anyway? The commander has already decided to take her to Moria and have her slave her life away.” the doctor thought.

A brief expression of surprise was shown on Sweetie’s face but the doctor did not catch it in time before she reigned in her expressions. “There it is again” Sweetie thought. “I heard her say something, but her mouth didn’t move. Either she is a skilled ventriloquist or I am somehow reading her mind. And what is this about enslaving me? If that is true, then I will need to find a way out of here before we reach this Moria that she mentioned.”

The doctor began asking Sweetie a number of questions about her species, her homeworld, and a few trick questions to see if she was working for a rival guild or if she was a Confederate spy working to undermine the organization she worked for, which was called the Kel-Morian Combine. Needless to say, Sweetie got a lot more information from the doctor than the other way around due to Sweetie’s information management skills from her agency training. The doctor was convinced that Sweetie had a ship that crashed in a distant location and she somehow wandered into the mining operation. She also learned that these people were indeed Humans and that she ended up on a world that had life but no civilization.

After the “interrogation,” the Kel-Morians packed up their equipment along with numerous crates of the strange crystals and launched the ship into space. Soon, a strange feeling took hold of Sweetie; as if her body was moving faster and her insides were trying to catch up. The feeling soon faded and she soon concentrated on biding her time for an opportunity to escape from these people.

As she was waiting, her thoughts turned to Lyra. Concern filled her as she wondered if Lyra was going to be alright without her. She soon put those thoughts into the back of her mind as her own safety came first for now. At least her headache was fading away.

A few hours later, two crew members walked through the room discussing their plans on refueling on some fringe world called Mar Sara. Sweetie figured that her chance to escape was close at hand and waited for the ship to land.

The ship landed at a fueling station on the planet that the Kel-Morians mentioned called Mar Sara. As the crew was distracted with the fueling, Sweetie slipped her hand through the bars of her prison and typed in the code for her cell that she obtained from that Marine, who was also mentioned during the interrogation. Upon opening the cell door, Sweetie quietly snuck out through the opening in the ship that the crew used to leave the ship, taking note and scoffing at the lack of proper security systems and grabbing a tarp to cover her form.

After successfully sneaking away from her captors, Sweetie began taking in the sights around her. The air was hot and dry and the city appeared to be built in a desert. The people took measures to protect themselves from the overbearing sun. She also noticed a number of people in Marine suits and some occasional Marine suits that were equipped with metal cylinders on their backs. The structures around the city were mainly made of metal and some merchants were selling their wares outside these buildings under makeshift sunshades. The city, overall, had a lower middle class feel to it. In a sense, the city reminds her a little of Appleloosa.

Sweetie entered one of the structures and saw what appeared to be a bar. Seeking a break from the sun, Sweetie walked into the bar and had a seat about 2 places from a tough-looking man with long black hair and wearing a white tee shirt and a sleeveless grey jacket, blue jeans and dark leather boots.

The bartender walked up to Sweetie and addressed her. “What’ll it be?”

Sweetie looked up at the bartender, doing her best to keep her form concealed. “Nothing for me, thanks,” she responded. “Just taking a moment to get out of this sun. I’ll be on my way soon.” She knew she didn’t have any acceptable currency on her so she couldn’t order anything.

The bartender raised an eyebrow at the fact that she kept her face hidden and her lack of tolerance to the heat. He shook his head. “You must be new to Mar Sara. Most folks here can usually take the heat. What brings you to these here parts?”

“Probably find some work for the time--” Sweetie said as there was some action going on in the bar.

Some of the patrons were really drunk and started causing a ruckus. One of the patrons pulled off Sweetie’s tarp by accident. Soon, everyone was staring at Sweetie since they have never seen anything like her. Although, for some who remembered their Earth studies, a few were making comments about how she resembles some of Earth’s equine species.

The exhibition was put on pause, however, when one of the drunk patrons who were not paying attention to the atmosphere of the bar smashed a whiskey bottle on the head of another patron.

The scene at the bar quickly turned violent as more drunk patrons started fighting one another. The tough-looking patron got out of his seat and started punching out some of the patrons while dodging some thrown bottles.

Sweetie had enough of the scene and got out of her seat to fight her way out. She dodged every punch thrown at her as well as a number of bottles that were headed in her direction. Sweetie has been in her fair share of bar fights in Canterlot and Manehattan and she knew how to deal with drunken idiots. One of her punches knocked one of the patrons through a number of other patrons and into a wall.

Soon, the only ones left standing were Sweetie and the tough-looking man. The person lowered his arms and commented “You sure know how to make a scene.” The man chuckled and held out his hand. “Howdy, I’m Jim Raynor. I’m the local Marshal ‘round these parts.”

Sweetie was taken aback at the fact that Jim wasn’t showing signs of being weirded out by her equine form. “You’re not concerned about my appearance?” she asked.

Raynor simply shrugged. “I usually keep an open mind about these things. All I know is you’re part of some alien race from some unknown world that we haven’t found yet since your species ain’t in the database. Truth be told, you look like a two-legged version of some little girl’s dream creature. You seem friendly, so I’m willin’ to see if you’re trustworthy. Anyway, I saw how well you fought and I heard you were lookin’ for work. How ‘bout this, I can get the local Magistrate to hire you on as my deputy. We can get you an ID to let you live around here as a citizen until you’re ready to move on somewhere. The Magistrate is new to his position and has more important things to worry about so gettin’ you registered shouldn’t be hard. How’s that sound?”

Sweetie could see plenty of benefits in accepting Raynor’s offer. But, on the other hand, she knows next to nothing about him and has no idea if he is trustworthy. However, knowing the alternative will lead to more struggle than necessary, she was willing to take the risk. She grabbed Raynor’s outstretched hand and they shook to affirm their deal.

Raynor smiled as he stared at his new deputy. “Now, how ‘bout I buy you a drink. You look like you need one.”

Sweetie smiled at the thought at getting something to drink. “I could go for something strong. I have had a long day.”

Aiur: Amdor's Folly

The destruction of the Heart of the Conclave has sent much of the Protoss population into a panic. The chaos has further divided the people into those who remained faithful to the Conclave, those who prefer to remain neutral on the matter, and those who sympathized with Tassadar’s followers. With Khor-shakal destroyed, the latter faction have openly sided with Tassadar’s followers and provided what resources that they could. Some of the new supporters provided their own personal Carriers to support their war against the Zerg.

Sweetie was on the Hyperion checking out what ammo she could use to help break out Tassadar from his prison. She intended for this to be the last battle against any Protoss opponent for a long time, so she armed herself with as many Lockdown missiles that she could carry as well as C-10 rounds.

Raynor had decided to remain on the Hyperion and assist in the breakout from the ship. He would normally be on the front lines when it comes to missions, but he was still not fully recovered from his injury. In exchange for taking it easy, Horner allowed Raynor full command of the ship for the operation.

Artanis sent a number of Observers to search Aiur for Tassadar’s prison and found it in a walled city a few miles away from Khor-shakal. The Observers discovered a smaller walled area near the city that his forces could use to establish a forward base for their assault.

The area around Tassadar’s prison was heavily defended and would take a lot of firepower to breach those defenses. Once he had a grasp of what they would be up against, Artanis called for a strategy meeting with Fenix, Sweetie and Raynor in attendance. Zeratul and Lyra were nowhere to be found.

Sweetie had faith that the Dark Templar had a plan to help save Tassadar so she wasn’t worried. Lyra was likely with them so she would be in good hands.

Fenix started the meeting. “All seems lost now, but we must fight on. We must secure Tassadar’s release from the Judicator before they can execute him for treason. Without him, I fear there is no way to defeat the Zerg or their Overmind.”

“Don’t worry, Fenix” Sweetie stated. “We have a plan to free him and the Dark Templar will help.”

“You seem to have a lot of faith in the Dark Templar, Sweetie, but why would they disappear when we need them most?” Fenix responded.

“It’s not that I have faith in the Dark Templar themselves. I simply trust that Lyra knows what she’s doing. We have been close for years and have been in a relationship for three of those. Lyra and Zeratul will execute their plan when the opportunity presents itself. It’s our job to create that opportunity.”

“Tassadar laid it on the line for me, Sweetie, and my crew on Char,” Raynor said. “I’d like to repay that debt. Besides, I’m a long way from home, surrounded by hostile aliens. I’ve gotta do something.”

“Then you shall, bold human. You shall.” Fenix stated.

Raynor nodded and returned to the Hyperion via shuttle to prepare for battle.

With some time to spare before they executed their plan, Fenix and Artanis decided to get to know Sweetie a little. “I have heard that you were the one who mentored Lyra before she came to Aiur. You must be quite skilled to have trained her as well as you did. She put up an impressive fight against myself for one inexperienced in the art of combat,” Fenix said.

“Thanks for the compliment,” Sweetie said. “I trained as a covert agent for most of my adolescent years. I was once the top agent in my organization and that created a bit of a rivalry among my comrades.”

“‘Once’?” Artanis asked. “What happened to make you lose that position?”

Sweetie sighed as she relived her most painful memory. “We were betrayed by someone that we thought we could trust. He was our agency’s primary benefactor. When he no longer needed us, he ordered an assault on our headquarters. We never saw it coming, and they killed everyone that worked there in the chaos. I was the only one who managed to escape. After the incident, our benefactor…” She put a lot of venom in that last word. “...publicly denounced our agency as rebels against the leadership. Our people were not desensitized to the media so any propaganda was bought by the populace. Since then, I was determined to have my revenge on him and to restore the honor of my fallen comrades.”

“How did you end up in the Koprulu Sector?” Artanis asked. “Lyra has informed us that you come from a world far from this sector.”

“I made a deal with a powerful being that I would take part in wars in this sector for the next eight years in exchange for an opportunity to exact my vengeance. I know it seems unfair, but hopefully, I will get something more from this journey to make it all worthwhile.”

“I hope so as well,” said Artanis.

The three of them began preparations for the operation to save Tassadar.

Numerous tribes of Protoss had the base surrounded on three sides, which increased the pressure on the rebel forces. Every known piece of Protoss war technology was being thrown at Sweetie and her allies. Whenever a Carrier showed up to harass them, Sweetie fired a Lockdown on the Carrier, making it easy prey for the Hyperion and Fenix.

Artanis, who was tired of being attacked from every angle, sends a significant force to the southwest of the walled base. The Furinax Tribe, who were supporting the Ara Tribe that had Tassadar imprisoned, sent all the support that they could spare to help their besieged base. However, Artanis’ attack was too swift and they were unable to save the base in time.

Artanis sent more troops to support the attacking force as they pushed against the waves of Furinax Tribe members. Sweetie’s rounds were just about as effective as everything else against the Protoss shields, making her consider researching a way to make or obtain special ammunition that could penetrate Protoss shields in the future.

The remaining Furinax Tribe base fared little better than the previous one and the tribe was forced to retreat.

In response to the attacks, the Ara Tribe launched a powerful air offensive of Carriers and Scouts, with a pair of Arbiters following behind them. Artanis moved his forces to intercept the offensive, however, the Arbiters placed a large number of Artanis’ forces in stasis fields while the attackers picked off the ones that did not get frozen.

One of Artanis’ Observers detected another Observer in the attacking group so Sweetie could not get close to the attackers without risking herself. She unleashed a Psionic Storm on the lone observer before placing the Arbiters into Lockdown. While the attackers were distracted with Sweetie’s antics, Artanis called in a number of Carriers to attack the small fleet. The ships were wiped out along with the helpless Arbiters.

Using this opportunity, Artanis ordered the Carriers to attack the Ara Tribe’s main base. The Hyperion accompanied the Carriers. Sweetie and Fenix accompanied a ground force of Zealots and Dragoons to attack the base from another angle to split the enemy’s attention. Sweetie let the Protoss forces deal with the Photon Cannons while she kept an eye out for enemy Carriers and Arbiters.

The ground forces broke through the initial defenses and were attacking the inner part of the base. In the center of the base Sweetie and Fenix saw a large structure that looked like a pedestal holding up a large cylinder with a lone figure inside of it. The two approached the console of the stasis cell. With the chaos of the capital ship attack, nobody even paid attention to them. Fenix sent a transmission to Artanis: “We have found Tassadar’s stasis cell. We will attempt to free him now.” Since Fenix couldn’t operate the console in his current form, he instructed Sweetie on what to do.

Sweetie couldn’t help but feel that there was a trap about to be sprung. Never doubting her feelings, she remained wary.

The stasis cell was opened a few seconds later before Sweetie moved away from the cell. Tassadar emerged from his cell and landed on the ground.

A psi blade hummed behind the Templar commander. Tassadar turned his head slightly to find Judicator Amdor with his blade near his back. “I expected you to attempt to retrieve your hero,” Amdor said. “You will learn that the will of the Conclave is absolute. Make peace with Adun.” Amdor reared his arm behind him in preparation to strike, when his arm was grabbed by something invisible.

The air behind Amdor began to darken and a form of a Protoss began to appear. Zeratul maintained his grip on the Judicator’s arm. “Stay thy hand, Judicator. The stewards of Tassadar shall not fall while the Dark Templar live. Call off your guards and stand aside and you may yet live to see another moonrise.” he threatened.

“I will not be addressed so by one so devoid of the Khala’s light. You and your vile brethren shall die with these traitors,” Amdor said.

Sweetie walked up to the Judicator. “Are you seriously so fanatical to your religion that you’re willing to throw your entire race to oblivion? Because if you are, your religion isn’t a religion anymore, it’s a damned cult.”

“How dare you refer to our beliefs as something so lowly!” exclaimed Amdor.

“I do dare because you can’t even see the futility in your war against the Zerg. You are facing an enemy that will simply revive itself even if you blow up the planet. Did your Conclave learn nothing when the attack against that one Cerebrate proved futile? You can attack the hives all you want, but they will always be free to make more as long as the Cerebrates live. Let me make this as simple as I can. You. Need. The. Dark. Templar.”

“ENOUGH OF YOUR LIES! YOU WRETCHED CREATURE!” Amdor screamed, before he broke free from Zeratul’s grip and recklessly charged at Sweetie, who smiled sadly while shaking her head.

The next few moments that followed for Amdor were a flash of green, the feeling of his body below the neck going completely numb, and his head falling to the ground. The last memory that Amdor experienced was seeing a pair of aquamarine hooves walking toward the one who slighted his religion before his body burst into a bright light.

Sweetie smiled as her marefriend approached. “You know, if the agency were still around, I would have selected you to be my partner on every mission.”

Lyra smirked. “Even without the agency, we’re already partners in more than one way.”

The two shared a laugh. It helped relieve some of the tension as they prepared themselves for the true battle that was to come.

The time had come to begin the assault on the Overmind.

UED: Raiding Moria

The destruction of the Psi Disrupter brought great relief to both Kerrigan and Sweetie Drops. With the device no longer emitting psychic waves that disrupted Kerrigan’s hive mind, she and Sweetie were free to control Zerg once more.

Sweetie’s control over Zerg had improved with practice. At this point she was able to control up to thirty underlings worth of Zerg, enough for up to five Ultralisks or sixty Zerglings. Sweetie felt that she had reached the limit of what she was capable of with her current state. If she wanted to expand on this power in the future, she would need to find the catalyst that the Overmind had mentioned. Still, thirty underlings worth of Zerg was not bad.

Fenix and Raynor were still on edge about having their enemies right next to them. Nobody could blame them. Given Kerrigan’s treacherous history, they had no idea when, and they were sure it would be, she would start killing her associates. Mengsk was also untrustworthy; he was responsible for practically feeding Kerrigan to the Zerg and would likely betray anyone just to save himself. Duran, the Ghost that Lyra and Sweetie were the most wary, acted like he was Kerrigan’s advisor. Though Sweetie had a feeling that he was the most treacherous of them all; that he may even be deceiving Kerrigan into thinking that he was one of her pawns when he may be following his own agenda. Sweetie asked the Overmind if it had seen anything like whom she was sensing.

~”I had felt something like this before countless millennia ago. The last time I sensed a power like this was during the time my master was still alive. What you sense now is still but a shadow of my master’s true power. Exercise caution around this one, Sweetie Drops.”~

“Hmm...if he has a power like Amon’s then he may be one of his servants. Is he a Xel’naga?”

~”Although his power still pales in comparison to Amon, it may be possible, but I cannot say for certain.”~

It would appear that Sweetie was looking at one of her true enemies. She could not afford to confront Duran at this point. First she would need to find a way to match his power before she could start calling him out.

Fenix spoke and broke Sweetie out of her thoughts. “Now that the Psi Disrupter is destroyed and Kerrigan has regained control of her minions, I fear that she will forget our pact and turn on us.”

“I know what you mean, Fenix,” Raynor said. “I’d love to believe that she’s on the level, but there’s a part of me that just knows better. However, I do believe that she’s serious about taking out the UED. The only real question left is what happens to us when she wins.”

Sweetie chimed in before Mengsk could. “If she tries anything, I’ll just humiliate her again like I did on Shakuras.”

Kerrigan, who had caught the tail end of the conversation, approached the group and deadpanned, “Thanks for reopening that wound, Sweetie.” Sweetie smirked in response.

“Kerrigan, are your forces ready to assault Korhal as we planned?” Fenix asked.

“Nearly, I still need a substantial cache of resources in order to build up my primary hive clusters. I’m wondering if you all wouldn’t mind going on a fuel raid for me?”

“What are ya’ thinkin’?” Raynor asked.

“I’m thinking that we should pay the Kel-Morian Combine a little visit,” Kerrigan suggested. Sweetie’s attention was now fully focused on Kerrigan. She had been looking to give the Combine a little payback for attempting to treat her like some commodity when she first arrived in the Koprulu sector. “Moria is one of the largest resource nodes in the sector. If you can bypass their defenses, and steal enough resources from them, we’ll be able to afford a full-scale assault on Korhal.”

“It’s risky, but I think we can handle it. Fenix, are you into this?” Raynor asked.

“If it betters our chances, I will lead the assault myself,”:Fenix replied.

“I will be accompanying you, Fenix. I have some personal business with them.” Sweetie said. She turned to Raynor and Mengsk and requested a few loaded Nuclear Silos to accompany her for the mission. The two Terran men had a feeling that they were about to learn why it was a bad idea to mess with Sweetie Drops.

Fenix and Sweetie were on the surface of Moria accompanied by a large number of Zerg. Kerrigan ordered her newly acquired Cerebrate to infest the Command Centers of the nearby mining guilds.

Fenix, Sweetie and the Zerg charged at the nearest mining guild base which had minimal defenses and were not even mining the minerals near them. Sweetie figured that they were probably some new guild that had too little time to set up. That still didn’t explain the lack of a Command Center though.

Fenix commented about the whimsy of fortune that made him team up with one enemy to deal with another. Raynor responded with a comment about how he sounded like a tired old man when he said things like that.

The various guilds had been alerted to their presence and sent small groups that only served to exploit holes in their defenses. Sweetie was happy to serve their mechanical troops a lockdown while Ultralisk blades tore through the metal. Surprisingly, to Sweetie, the sound of blades through metal was a bit satisfying in this situation.

The guild chosen to be their next target was a more isolated base to the east of their position. While the Cerebrate was directing its forces against the target guild, Sweetie spotted a heavily defended position that was just begging for her to paint. Sneaking around any detecting Missile Turrets, Sweetie marked a spot that was defended by a Bunker, some Missile Turrets and some Siege Tanks. Thanks to the improved marking system, Sweetie only needed a second for the target to lock on. Sweetie casually walked away from the target as a Tactical Nuke blew up the entire area behind her.

The Zerg were just about done with the base once a Queen had entered the guild’s battered and burning Command Center. The organic growth that spawned all over the Command Center had put out the fires and restored some semblance of its former self.

Fenix continued to behave like an old retired veteran when he was reminiscing about his past. Raynor couldn’t help but roll his eyes as he listens to his friend talk over the comms.

The guild northwest of their main base was their next target. Since the first target was wiped out, the Cerebrate started setting up operations to harvest resources in preparation for attacking the remaining guilds in the area.

The next target sometimes harassed the main base by ferrying troops behind the main defensive line. Thankfully, the Cerebrate was able to react to their attacks since they were a little too close to the Nuclear Silos that Sweetie took with her.

Sweetie opened up the attack on the next guild’s base by dropping a Tactical Nuke on their initial defensive line. This opened the way for a wide variety of Zerg to go on a rampage through the guild base. The Queen took advantage of the chaos and infested their Command Center, followed by more maudlin from Fenix.

The Zerg continued to move from guild base to guild base, laying waste to the Terrans and infesting their Command Centers. The two guilds farthest from the main Zerg hive were also taking advantage of the resources available to them to make use of some high end weaponry such as Battlecruisers and Tactical Nukes. One of Sweetie’s Nukes obliterated some of the Battlecruisers in one guild’s base, making them easy pickings for the Zerg.

The remaining guild base specialized in training Ghosts and keeping their only Nuclear Silo loaded with a Nuclear Missile. Sweetie ended up fighting fire with fire when a Defiler created a smokescreen of insects over her position and allowed her to drop her last Nuclear Missile on their base and blew away a number of enemy Ghosts.

Once again, the Zerg took advantage of the destruction and rampaged through the base. In the chaos, Sweetie saw a familiar Marine. She recognized the face of the Marine who captured her and threw her in a cell standing next to someone to whom he saluted. Sweetie figured him to be his commanding officer.

As she approached them the two saw her coming and a look of surprise appeared on the Marine’s face. “Huh? Yer that horse person. What’re you doin’ here?” he asked.

Sweetie used one arm to point her rifle at the Marine’s face in point blank range with her finger on the trigger. “This.” She pulled the trigger.

The commanding officer pointed his rifle at Sweetie only for her to disappear. The officer looked around for the vanishing Pony for a few seconds before rumbling could be heard above him as he looked up and saw electricity dancing above his head. In only a split second he felt excruciating agony as the psionic lightning coursed through his body and rendered him into a charred, smoking husk.

A strange device flew out of the commander’s hands before the lightning hit. Sweetie picked it up and took it with her back to the Hyperion to see if it could be of some use in the attack on Korhal.

Interbellum: Climbing the Chain

Alarak, who knew the truth about Amon, had a plan to take the reins of leadership of his people from the foolish Ma’lash, Highlord of the Tal’darim. As a First Ascendant himself, he had the right to challenge him to Rak’Shir, the formalized dueling system in place by their society that allowed any Tal’darim to rise in the ranks.

The Tal’darim were a purely militaristic society that held no value in research and development. Any technology that they possessed was stolen from the Khalai and Nerazim. They held no concerns toward the overall health of a planet and simply exploited it completely for resources. The only thing that the Tal’darim ever truly respected was the Chain of Ascension. However, to Alarak, even that was nothing more than a game to him.

Alarak’s plan was simple, weaken the Highlord by eliminating his strongest sources of psionic power and seek out powerful sources of psionic power for himself. When he saw Lyra’s power, he knew that he had found his secret weapon.

Convincing Lyra to help him was simple. Since she was his prisoner, which in itself was highly unusual since Tal’darim do not take prisoners, if she wanted to go back to her friends, she would have to earn her way to that privilege by climbing the Chain of Ascension.

Since his prisoner had agreed to assist him with his plans, Alarak let Lyra out of her stasis cell. To make sure she didn’t do something that would cause his plans for her to be wasted, he informed her about the basics of Tal’darim culture. He told her about the Chain of Ascension, the purely aggressive nature of his people, the rules for climbing the Chain of Ascension where she was not allowed to engage a superior except in Rak’Shir. He also explained what Rak’Shir was.

Lyra took in everything that Alarak told her. She could not see the Tal’darim as any less than a barbaric tribe that valued strength above all else.

The ship soon entered the atmosphere of planet Slayn. It wasn’t long before the air from the atmosphere began entering the ship. Lyra picked up a familiar scent from the air and realized that there were small amounts of Terrazine in it.

“By now you might be inhaling the Terrazine that exists in the atmosphere of the planet. Thanks to mining the deepest depths of the planet, pockets of Terrazine are constantly rising to the surface and integrating with the very air we breathe,” Alarak said.

He wasn’t lying, she was already becoming lightheaded just from breathing.

“Don’t think I’m not aware that you need to consume sustenance to survive. As long as you continue to assist me with my plans, I will bring you the nutrition you need. Can’t have you dying on me from starvation. The rest of my supplicants already retrieved your supplies from your mission to sabotage our operations. That should at least sustain you for a few weeks if you ration it.”

Not saying a word, Lyra retrieved some rations from her supplies. As she was eating, a visage of Bon Bon appeared. Even if the image was all in her head, it still gave her some comfort in the bleak situation she found herself in. Her voice was calming for her and she could almost swear that she felt the touch of the image. Lyra soon shook her head and the image went away. She knew that it was nothing more than an illusion created by her increasing Terrazine hallucinations.

Lyra was soon shown to other Tal’darim, who gave Alarak strange looks given the normal customs of their people. Alarak said nothing as he continued to the Pits of Ascension where Rak’Shir duels took place.

As they moved, Lyra took in the surroundings. It was every bit as grim and bleak that she imagined Slayn would be. The main theme all around her was black and red. The sky was as depressing as everything else. She could only hope her sanity would hold out for the duration of her stay.

At the Pits of Ascension, Lyra witnessed two combatants fighting while there were others around them gave their power to the combatant that they declared. Alarak gave a more detailed explanation of Rak’Shir as the fight continued. The match carried for two hours before the challenger was pushed back and forced into a large bottomless hole.

After the match, Alarak looked around at his fellow warriors to find a target that wouldn’t be missed. He soon found some warrior that was of Votary rank. Having Lyra defeat him would put her in a good starting position on the Chain of Ascension.

“I want you to challenge that warrior to Rak’Shir. The way things are now, you are currently a mere Supplicant rank around here; my Supplicant. Eliminate him and steal his rank and you will be one step closer to leaving this planet.”

Lyra knew that nobody was coming to save her. Last she heard from Bon Bon was that she was going to go make some money as a mercenary. The Protoss wouldn’t dare come to the homeworld of the Tal’darim as that would only end in disaster. If she was going to survive in the harsh environment, she would need to adapt to the Tal’darim culture, even if it meant maintaining a harsh and cruel facade for a while.

With that, Lyra approached the soon-to-be-victimized warrior and challenged him to Rak’Shir. The warrior merely laughed at her saying that she was not even a Protoss, let alone a Tal’darim.

If there was a time for her to start embracing her darker side, it was now. “Does this mean that you admit to cowardice?” Lyra asked.

The Tal’darim Votary took the bait easier than she expected. Since Rak’Shir duels took place at sunrise, she had time to mentally prepare herself.

After another period of shaking away hallucinations, Alarak approached Lyra with a pair of Tal’darim focusers.

“Put them on. If you’re going to fight like Tal’darim, you’re going to use the same blades we do.”

Without saying a word, Lyra removed her Khalai psi blade focuser and her Nerazim warp blade focuser and put them away for safekeeping. She took the new focusers and put them on. When she tried to activate them however, she was unable to do so.

“Hmph...I see you’re used to the Khalai and Nerazim method of deploying blades. These are Tal’darim bane blades. They deploy by channeling the power of the void.” Alarak gathers a significant concentration of Terrazine from the air around him into his hand and condensed it into a spherical shape with his psionic power. He holds the gaseous sphere in front of Lyra. “Breathe this in, with any luck you will figure out how to channel the void with enough exposure.”

Lyra did as he said and deeply inhaled the purple ball of gas. She felt the effect immediately as she began to lose herself to the same euphoria she experienced when she was first exposed to Terrazine. This time, however, the blurry figures she saw before were more focused. She began to wonder if she was developing a resistance to the gas just by being immersed in it constantly.

Instead of just a world of purple, this time there were streaks of crimson around her that her instincts were telling her to reach out for. Following her instincts, she soon discovered that she was concentrating the red streaks into some red energy that soon took the form of crimson blades. Except, the blades were coming from her palms and not the focusers.

Alarak observed Lyra’s drug-induced episode and discovered her palm blades, a very rare ability. He began to wonder if nurturing Lyra’s power would come back to bite him someday. On the other hand, he may not find another like Lyra for another century and he wasn’t getting younger. Not willing to take the risk of killing Lyra to find another candidate for his plan to create the ultimate supplicant, he continued observing her development.

At the dawn of the next day, Lyra entered the Pit of Ascension with her opponent entering to face her. Two Tal’darim entered with him and declared themselves for her opponent. Lyra had no support from the other Tal’darim. A small audience gathered around the pit area and observed with anticipation.

The match began and the two charged at each other with their bane blades deployed and their psionic powers clashing. While her opponent thought that he had the advantage in numbers, he had greatly underestimated Lyra. The Votary was being given all his allies could afford but it wasn’t enough as Lyra was pushing hard against him with overwhelming psionic power. He was quickly pushed back to his pit and was unable to gain ground. He soon panicked and desperately tried to push back, but it was all in vain as Lyra pushed him into the bottomless pit to meet a molten death.

The overwhelming show of force stunned the crowd. They knew then that Lyra’s power was no joke. Some even began to believe that she could become a First Ascendant. However, none would dare to believe yet that she could take the Highlord.

So it was for the next few years, Lyra would accompany Alarak on missions, sometimes to obliterate Dominion forces. Alarak avoided the recently formed Daelaam Protoss, the union of the Khalai and Nerazim, since he didn’t want to risk them finding out where she was and attempting to rescue her. Though he would have welcomed their attempt, he had enough problems helping the Pony unlock her full power, which was coming really close to rivaling his own and was making him a little nervous.

Lyra had participated in more Rak’Shir duels and taken the ranks of her superiors. Most of her duels, however, were challenges from those ranked below her. They never stood a chance.

As Lyra continued to win duels, she gained her own fan club who had begun to support her in her duels as her Supplicants.

In time, Lyra’s powers had grown immensely from the time she came to Slayn, to the point that those below her rank stopped throwing their lives away to try for her rank. By the year 2504, she had obtained the rank of Second Ascendant, just below Alarak’s rank.

The time had come to earn her freedom. Alarak had Lyra seek out and challenge the First Ascendant that Alarak would prefer to be out of the picture. This one was a favored servant of Ma’lash and would probably be Lyra’s biggest challenge so far.

The dawn after she issued the challenge to the First Ascendant, the two met in the pit. What was different about this match was that he had an unusual supporter. She remembered seeing something like it four years ago, a Protoss-Zerg Hybrid.

Of course, the Hybrid declared itself for her enemy. Thankfully, her supporters did not falter and chose to support her.

When the duel began, the two combatants stood in place for a few minutes. When the Hybrid alone was not pushing Lyra back, more of the Ascendant’s forces came to his support. Lyra tapped into the depths of her power and, to the Ascendant’s surprise, he was pushed back. Slowly, she began making progress. Her pace accelerated when her allies started killing the Ascendant’s allies while taking care to avoid the Hybrid.

Lyra ordered her allies to rush the Hybrid together. Though they suffered significant losses, her allies managed to slay the Hybrid. With the creature dead, Lyra quickly forced the Ascendant back to the pit and he fell in, officially sealing her position as a First Ascendant.

Ma’lash was not happy at all that he not only lost his favorite Ascendant but also his Hybrid warrior. He would have had Lyra executed if she hadn’t vanished in a puff of black smoke. Ma’lash ordered Observers to find her but she had already gotten aboard a ship to escape the planet. Lyra was already long gone by the time they realized.

Earlier…

Alarak and Lyra were preparing their strategy the night before. They knew their Highlord was going to be furious when she won her match in the morning.

“You know the plan now,” Alarak began. “In order to secure my place as Highlord of the Tal’darim, I will need more than you to defeat him in Rak’Shir. Find some way to lure the Daelaam to me so that I can convince them to help me take over.”

“So once my duel is over, I have to get to the ship you prepared for me as quickly as possible and take off before they lock on to my position and return to my friends,” Lyra said.

Alarak ignored what Lyra just said and continued, “Now, begone your last Rak’Shir begins soon. Oh, and one last bit of warning. Beware of Executor Nyon. He is extremely fanatical to the point where he cares not for rank as he believes that Amon himself charged him with guarding Xel’naga artifacts. He was too weak to withstand Terrazine exposure and now he has completely lost his mind...a fate worse than death.” With that, Alarak left Lyra to her own devices.

Lyra was glad to finally be freed from that dismal planet. Sadly, she had a feeling that she would be returning to that world again in the future.

Once outside of Tal’darim space, Lyra was struck by a sense of longing and decided to make a detour to find the Hyperion and her beloved Bon Bon.

Liberty: Night of the Infested

“Alright, what did the techs find out about Tychus?” Sweetie asked Matt.

“They found a sophisticated transponder in his suit. They say that if the transponder receives the correct code, it’ll shut down all his major organs. That suit is a death trap,” Matt said.

There was only one person who she knew had the motivation to put a man in a suit of armor and put a kill switch in it. This was further believed because no Protoss or Zerg would know the workings of Terran technology and Kerrigan was focused on controlling her brood. Even if Moebius was underhanded, it wouldn’t make sense to draw the suspicion of the Raiders upon themselves.

That left Mengsk. Planting moles into the Raiders fits within his capabilities, even coerced moles would be within his modus operandi.

Sweetie now knew what she had to do. “Where is Tychus now?”

“Only place we haven’t looked is the bridge.”

Sweetie and Matt went to the bridge to find the convict looking into the Hyperion video files. Tychus noticed Matt approach him and turned off the video.

“That’s funny, convict, I don’t recall giving you access to our database,” Matt said.

“Just keeping up on current events, ‘Captain’,” Tychus responded.

Matt moved aside for a moment. The next thing Tychus saw was a charged rocket barreling toward him. The rocket latched onto his suit and sent an electrical charge through it, shutting down any computerized systems. Tychus’ suit became much heavier. “What the hell are you--” Tychus managed to say before a powerful psionic wave assaulted his mind and his vision blacked out.

“You know, I could have you thrown off the ship for discharging your weapon on my bridge. But since it was meant for Tychus, I think I can overlook that,” Matt said.

Sweetie giggled before calling in a stretcher to have him sent quickly to the medical bay.

Inside the medical bay, Sweetie had gathered all necessary minds and means to complete the operation. Hanson was monitoring Tychus’ vitals in case the suit activated its kill switch. Stetmann was monitoring the machinery to make sure everything necessary was in working order.

Tychus was locked into an electromagnetic field to prevent the suit’s systems from reactivating while Sweetie was keeping Tychus’ consciousness locked for the operation.

Into the room came the surgeon for the operation: Lyra Heartstrings. She had been briefed of the procedure that she was about to perform. Since the EM field didn’t affect her powers, she could use her blades to perform the operation.

Deploying her warp and bane blades, Lyra had begun to carefully cut through the armor, piece by piece. She started by cutting off the shoulder armor and cutting into the mechanics beneath. She managed to carefully cut the arms of the suit off to reveal Tychus’ meaty arms. His arms were a bit singed but a Medic was nearby to heal any surface damage.

Lyra went straight to the chest area by cutting into the left side of the armor. So far, no emergency signals were activated. Lyra cut around the midsection and up the right side. Once Lyra cut around the neck of the armor, Sweetie managed to remove the front and back of the armor, revealing that Tychus was not wearing a shirt when the armor was put on him.

With the more dangerous piece of the armor removed, everyone breathed a sigh of relief before Lyra focused on removing the lower section of the armor, doing her best to avoid any ‘important’ areas.

A few hours after the operation and Sweetie had released her hold on Tychus’ consciousness, the convict had woken in a bed in the medical bay. Raynor, Sweetie and Lyra were next to him.

“Urgh...what happened?” Tychus asked.

Sweetie went first. “We found out what your suit was and decided to remove you from it. I suspect it was Mengsk who put you in there and I didn’t want to risk him finding out so I used a Lockdown on your suit and put your mind in stasis while Lyra surgically removed the suit from you.”

Tychus looked at his hand then looked at the rest of his body to find the suit had, in fact, been removed while he was asleep.

Sweetie continued, “We found the signal the transponder was broadcasting to Mengsk and found a way to mimic it. I’d rather he not suspect that his mole had been outed or he will just plant another within our ranks or worse.

“So, what happens to me?” Tychus asked.

“Well, ol’ buddy, you can keep workin' with us and live the glory days a little or if you’re feelin’ particularly loyal to Mengsk, I can toss you out the airlock,” Raynor responded.

“Heh, since I’m free, the deal I made with him is off. Seems I owe the Ponies here for my freedom.”

“Good, cause we’re gonna make you pay back every bit of effort we went through to break you out of that suit,” Sweetie said.

Later, Sweetie, Lyra, Tychus and Raynor were back at the cantina enjoying a drink. Lyra was busy, as usual, trying to beat her high score on ‘Lost Viking’. The crew scrounged around the ship to find Tychus a shirt and some shoes. In the end, all they could find was a maintenance outfit for bulky people like him. “Better than nothing,” they believed.

The news came on with a report about the Queen of Blades and speculations of her origin. Donny and Kate debated about whether it was possible to form an alliance with the Zerg since Kerrigan was an infested human. Another point they made was whether or not they could kill her. Sweetie ignored the news for the most part since they usually don’t have useful information to give.

Raynor tried to grill Tychus for more info on Moebius and the relation between Kerrigan and the Xel’naga artifact fragments. Tychus, unfortunately, had next to nothing since Moebius left him with a ‘no questions asked’ policy. Still, this was enough to leave Sweetie feeling that Moebius was not as legitimate as the public saw them.

Sweetie went to the lab to check out their newest acquisition. The Overmind’s protests had intensified a little ever since the Monlyth fragment was recovered. It made sense to Sweetie since it said that the artifact as a whole could take in essence. She would need to be careful around the artifact since she was not willing to have the Overmind ripped from her head, not with all the knowledge it still had to give.

Before Sweetie left the lab, Hanson stopped her to give a request, “I was hoping you could hear me out. I’ve been keeping contact with the Agrian refugees. Refugee populations from across the sector have been using the planet Meinhoff as a staging point. But with so many people in close proximity, an epidemic of some kind has started sweeping through the camps.”

“Any idea what kind of disease they’re dealing with?” Sweetie asked.

“All they said was that there was some kind of growth covering the buildings and twisting the forms of the refugees.”

“Sounds like they are being exposed to Zerg hive spores. They infest whomever they come into contact with and the infection spreads like a disease.”

“Any means to cure it?” Hanson asked.

“Scientifically, no. The virus adapts to any attempt at a cure. We thought the Protoss had one once, but we never heard whether the cure stuck or not. We could only assume it didn’t and he was killed. Still, we’ll deal with it. We will have to burn the infection before it spreads any further though.

“I understand.”

Sweetie left the lab to go see if Swann had any new tech.

“Hey Swann, we’re planning to go to Meinhoff to deal with a Zerg virus outbreak. Got anything good?”

“Ugh...Meinhoff...hate that place. But yeah, I can recreate those Hellions you saw on Mar Sara. Should be good down there. I even installed an extra nozzle for their flamethrowers for a wider burn. I also invested in some thermite to make them very dangerous to groups of Zerglings or in this case, infested people.”

Sweetie returned to the bridge and convinced Raynor to set course for Meinhoff.

Once orbiting Meinhoff, Sweetie discovered that the planet itself had an extremely fast rotation compared to other worlds. This likely meant that the planet would have a very short day and night cycle. A discovery on the surface showed that the infested were extremely sensitive to the nearby star. This left Sweetie to wonder how it was possible for Zerg to have such a crippling weakness on a planet where the star shines on the surface every few minutes. And secretly wishing Celestia were with her to keep the star in one place and make the mission much easier.

On the surface, the Raiders established themselves in the center of a refugee town called Jorgenton. Being in the only area in the town that wasn’t infested was one thing, being in the center of town surrounded by infestation was another.

The base had three chokepoints and one was blocked by debris. Firebats, Marines and Medics took up positions at the other two points. While defenses were being set up, Sweetie and Lyra spent the scant few seconds scouting the infested areas.

It wasn’t long before night came. Grotesque looking colonists began emerging from the infested structures and shambling their way toward the central camp. The infested were begging anyone around them put them out of their misery. Sweetie and Lyra obliged and sliced and blasted the miserable colonists.

Coming across various infested buildings and nothing nearby looking for their invisible forms, the Pony duo started tearing into the buildings. They also got reinforcements from Sweetie taking control of some of the infested who started clawing away at the infested buildings. Sensing this, the other infested started attacking their treacherous brethren.

The star soon appeared from the horizon and burned any infested that were exposed to the light. Sweetie and Lyra received word that a fast-moving attack group of Reapers and Hellions started engaging the southern districts of the town. Lyra started unleashing powerful psionic blasts that annihilated buildings. Sweetie called in Siege Breakers to blast more buildings to rubble.

Seeing Lyra’s power, Sweetie began feeling a little jealous of her marefriend’s powers. While Lyra could fight a horde of enemies on her own at this point, Sweetie still had to rely on mercenary contracts and other conveniently available resources such as Nukes and Zerg to get by. Perhaps the Overmind was right, she may end up seeking the might of the Swarm at some point in the future. While not today, she was beginning to consider seeking a new form of power that Terran ingenuity could not provide.

Night came again. The attack squadron went back to base. Sweetie and Lyra focused their attack in the eastern parts of town. During their attack, they found Marines that were infested by the Zerg virus. This variety still carried their rifles.

Another Zerg they found was also a new strain. This one had a massive body that walked on six smaller legs. The abdomen was large and swollen and the front was layered with segments of chitin. Upon close inspection, the swollen sacs were filled with infested Marines. The Overmind told Sweetie that the new strain was assimilated recently and was called an Infestor. They carry their own supply of infested Marines for their own protection.

Since the creature appeared to be a specialist, Lyra turned its own bio-energy against it with a Feedback and the creature violently ruptured.

Sunrise came again. Sweetie and Lyra headed through the southern parts of the town to find that it had been cleared. The attack squad, bigger than before, hit the north part of town.

In the western parts of town, Sweetie discovered, through her detection ability, a burrowed Zerg that appeared to be another of those infestors. By pointing the creature out, Lyra used another Feedback that had the same results as the first one.

Night came again. This time, with nobody retreating, the attack squadron focused on burning down the last of the infested buildings in the town.

With the town all but destroyed, the surviving colonists evacuated Meinhoff to seek a world to call their own, hopefully.

Sweetie, Lyra and the Raiders returned to the Hyperion, their grim task done.

Swarm: Containment Breach

The Bucephalus and the Hyperion arrived at Research Station EB-103. Shuttles were brought to the entrance of the station carrying Raynor, Tychus, Tosh, Valerian, Sweetie, Lyra and Kerrigan.

The group was greeted by an escort of Umojan Marines in white armor that looked slightly more advanced than the usual CMC suits worn by Dominion Marines.

The Umojans took Kerrigan off their hands and placed her in containment after fitting her with a standard Hostile Environment Suit.

Sweetie was a bit annoyed about Kerrigan’s treatment as a test subject, but understood that they only wished to use the utmost caution in case Kerrigan tried to kill the researchers.

Two weeks had passed since the rebels had arrived at the Umojan research facility. To the guests, the Umojans had been quite accommodating to the rebels. While the Umojans held a particular hatred toward Arcturus Mengsk, who had made attempts to strongarm the Protectorate into the Dominion through an economic blockade at one time, They did not judge Valerian for the crimes of his father.

Tosh was especially welcomed among the Umojans since they worked together in a plot to capture Arcturus which ultimately ended in failure because of Nova.

Raynor and Sweetie had a long talk about the things that she had been doing behind his back, such as her deal with Tosh, and the things that she had been keeping from him. As she believed would happen, Raynor was upset when she told him about the Overmind parasite which had been her information source for all things Zerg. She also mentioned that it was how she learned to control Zerg.

Raynor believed that the Overmind was slowly infesting her mind into becoming the same monster that Kerrigan was. With that, the two engaged in a heated argument that led to their relationship becoming strained. While he wasn’t about to abandon her, he had noticeably lost some of his trust in her. Sweetie was fine with the outcome, though she would have to make it up to Raynor later.

Kerrigan was not faring as well. She was still recovering from the effects of the Xel’naga artifact. Being abruptly cleansed of her infestation had taken its toll on her. While it completely drain her of her Zerg essence, the segmented dreadlocks remained.

Kerrigan was in a state of heavy depression, her memories of her atrocities against the innocent side of humanity continued to haunt her. She hardly ate or drank anything for those two weeks. Raynor and Sweetie did their best to bring her some comfort whenever the scientists would allow them near her.

During this time, Kerrigan began going through her memories from the years before she became the Queen of Blades to what happened after. She knew that her crimes were unforgivable but she still received a small comfort that Sweetie was there to prevent her from killing some of Jim's Protoss friends. It was small compared to the millions of innocents she either infested or killed in her crusade against humanity when she knew it hardly mattered in the face of the end times that were on the horizon.

Kerrigan soon began going through her more recent memories. She recalled the de-infestation and Raynor’s rescue of her alongside Sweetie, Tychus and Lyra. She knew that Jim went through a lot of effort to try and save her. At the same time, she recalled the conversation she had with Sweetie on Tyrador, about how she was the key to keeping the Zerg away from Amon’s control. She had to wonder how she could hope to stand up against a godlike entity like Amon even with the Zerg behind her.

Lyra teleported Sweetie into the containment cell to see Kerrigan. When the Pony's presence was recognized, Kerrigan asked, “How much longer are these tests going to last?”

“I wish I knew. I’d rather be out there preparing to face Amon’s forces or moving against Mengsk’s regime.”

Kerrigan thought for a moment before asking, “How would you be able to face such an army though? I sensed your battle with Narud in the hangar. You and Lyra together were struggling against him. I could tell that he was toying with you.”

“Actually, I’m sure Lyra would have fared better than me. She has some pretty destructive power, but she didn’t want to risk blowing a hole in the ship.”

Kerrigan chuckled. “You two sure picked a bad place to confront him.” The two of them shared a laugh before Kerrigan continued, “Thank you for stopping me from killing some of the Protoss leaders. I know that I wasn’t myself, but the burden of guilt is mine to bear just as well.”

“And I’m not sorry for those times that I humiliated you. You and I both know that you deserved that for how you behaved.” Kerrigan agreed with Sweetie and the two shared another laugh.

Kerrigan’s expression turned serious but hopeful as she asked a question that she was struggling to ask, “Would you be there to help me claim my vengeance against Arcturus, no matter what?”

Sweetie smiled and nodded. “I’ll help you kill the bastard alright. However, I ask for one thing in return. I’m not telling you here; I’ll tell you later.” Kerrigan accepted delaying the discussion for the time being. Sweetie signaled Lyra to teleport her back to Valerian.

Raynor walked up to Kerrigan’s containment field. He addressed the Umojans, “Make the most of this test. It’s your last one… Now give us a minute.”

Valerian and the scientists left Raynor alone to talk to Kerrigan. Kerrigan used her telekinesis to assemble a spherical device.

Raynor addressed Kerrigan, “We’re gettin’ out of here tonight, darlin’.”

“Good. Then we can go after Mengsk,” Kerrigan said.

“Forget Mengsk. Forget all of it! This is about you and me.”

Kerrigan crushed the device in her telekinesis and stood. “Until Mengsk is dead, there can’t be a ‘you and me.’”

“I moved heaven and earth to bring you back, Sarah!” Raynor pounded his fists into the force field. “I can’t watch you throw that away just for revenge!”

The door to the chamber began closing to begin the next phase of the test.

“I never gave up on you, Sarah! Don’t you give up on us!” Raynor yelled.

Alone in her cell again, Kerrigan spoke to Valerian who was observing the test from a booth above the chamber, “What are you hoping to get out of these tests, Valerian? I told you I don’t remember anything about being the Queen of Blades,” she lied.

“We have to find out how much of the Zerg mutagen is left in your system. I appreciate your cooperation, Kerrigan.”

Sweetie noticed that the young prince was getting a little too confident in how much control he had in the situation. She figured that he would need to be taken down a peg.

“Do you usually keep cooperative people in a containment cell?” Kerrigan asked.

“When we know it’s safe, I’ll unlock your door myself. Now, can you reach out with your mind? Do you sense it?”

A Drone was released from a holding pen next to a series of collected mineral clusters.

“A Drone? Are you really asking me to take control of a Zerg mind? Do you know what could happen?”

“All the test subjects are in a secure environment.”

Valerian had the Drone mutate into a Hatchery before releasing more Drones into the chamber to have Kerrigan order them to gather from the mineral clusters.

The next thing Valerian had Kerrigan do was mutate an Overlord before having a Drone mutate into a Spawning Pool. Kerrigan warned Valerian that the experiment was going to end badly. Valerian assured Kerrigan that the experiment was in a controlled environment.

At this point, Sweetie was eagerly waiting for Kerrigan to wipe the confident look off Valerian’s face.

Kerrigan began morphing Zerglings, ready to put Valerian’s ‘controlled environment’ to the test.

“Stop! I didn’t ask you to create Zerglings!” Valerian shouted. Sweetie smirked.

“Funny thing about Zerg, Valerian. They never do what you expect,” Kerrigan said ominously.

Valerian ordered a number of Sentry Bots and a larger version called the Eradicator to sanitize the holding cells.

The Zerglings broke out of the testing chamber and tore into the nearby Sentry Bots. The holding pens released more Zerglings, ready to go on a rampage.

Valerian had all scientists evacuate the sublevel.

Sweetie decided that she wanted to add to the mayhem. “Hey Kerrigan, mind if I borrow some Zerg? I wanna join in on this.”

Kerrigan smirked and split her control of the Zerg in the area with Sweetie who morphed a Larva into a Drone and then mutated the Drone into a Baneling Nest.

While the Zerglings were tearing into everything, some of the Zerglings began mutating into Banelings who started splashing the sublevel and the Sentry Bots in corrosive acid that easily melted the fragile metal that the robots were composed of.

One room started releasing deadly gas into the sublevel. The gas dispensers were melted shut by Baneling acid.

“Stop this at once, Kerrigan!” Valerian said before turning to Sweetie. “Get her to stop her attack!”

“I would, but you are getting too big for your britches and I think it’s time you learned a valuable lesson in picking your battles. By the way, those Banelings are under my command.”

“What?!”

The situation in the sublevel turned critical when the Eradicator was destroyed.

“Alright, alright! I’ll be careful about who I deal with from now on. Just please send them back to their pens,” Valerian shouted.

“Maybe now you understand how dangerous the Zerg are,” Kerrigan said as she ordered the Zerglings back to their pens.

“I’m opening your cell right now, if you’d like to join us. And perhaps next time you two can make your point without destroying half the facility?”

“No promises,” Sweetie said with a mischievous smile.

While she did feel bad about destroying Umojan property, she also felt like the prince needed a lesson in humility if he was going to be the leader that humanity needed.

Author's Note

I'll be honest, I wasn't confident in how I wrote this chapter. I even had to rewrite part of it today because the canon events at Space Station Prometheus had a bigger impact between then and the start of Heart of the Swarm than I thought. I don't regret it though.

Swarm: Vengeance Part 1

Ever since Raynor was returned to the Hyperion, Kerrigan had been distant from everyone. She knew that Raynor would react like he did when he saw what she had become once again.

Sweetie knew that there was nothing she could do to cheer her up. Seeing Kerrigan behaving like she was made her feel very lucky to have a marefriend as understanding as Lyra who was quick to accept changes in those around her...or at least with her.

It became apparent to Sweetie that spending so much time in the Koprulu Sector was causing great changes to herself and Lyra; outside and inside. While Discord said that they would be participating in a series of wars over the course of eight years, he didn’t mention having to go against a race of the same beings that ascended him as well as Princesses Celestia and Luna. Knowing that she would eventually face such a being was what drove her to gain the power that she now wielded. With the way she was now, she could easily take her revenge on Blueblood, but she also had at least three more years left before the terms of her initial agreement with Discord was up.

Lyra was also affected by the events in the Koprulu Sector. Once, she was simply a scatterbrained dropout of Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, playing her lyre in the park to earn her own money. Her time with the Protoss had pushed her into becoming a powerful psionic warrior. The skills she developed had made her into a one mare army. Her time among the Tal’darim had further enhanced her abilities to where Sweetie felt confident that Lyra could take on nearly anyone on Equus, short of Discord, Celestia and Luna, of course.

When Kerrigan finally recovered from her shock, she contacted Valerian on the Hyperion and informed him of her intentions of heading to Korhal and bring and end to Mengsk. She wanted to know where Valerian stood on the matter. When Valerian heard this, he was visibly sad and resigned to the fact that his father was beyond redemption. Sweetie could tell that he was torn between his father and the people of the Dominion. Like any good political leader, Valerian chose his people over his father and had to accept that his father had to be removed from power for the good of the Dominion. Nothing short of a bloody coup would get Arcturus off the throne.

“I suggest heading back to Korhal and begin evacuating the citizens before the Swarm arrives. The sooner you do that, the fewer casualties there will be,” Sweetie said.

<“Very well, we will return to Korhal right away,”> Valerian said.

A few minutes later, the Hyperion performed a jump and headed back to Korhal.

Zagara turned to Sweetie, “Why should we care about the lives of these Terrans? What do we gain from sparing a few civilians?”

Sweetie replied, “I may be part Zerg, but I’m still a Pony. Taking lives unnecessarily is not the way I do things and it’s not going to be how my Brood does things. My Brood will be strong without the need to go around slaughtering innocents.”

While Zagara wanted to debate that statement, she saw what her Strains were capable of. To wield power without needing to flaunt it with a kill count was one way of displaying strength.

“The essence of your world is indeed strong. Stronger than anything I encountered in my lifetime,” Dehaka said.

“The species of your world that you have mentioned so far exist on Earth in fantasy novels and games. I never imagined such creatures could exist on another world,” Stukov said.

Once everyone was done talking about Sweetie’s world and the essence it contained, Kerrigan ordered the Leviathan to set course for Korhal.

On the way, Abathur called Kerrigan and Sweetie to his evolution pit to begin the next demonstration to improve the Swarm Host.

Once ready, the duo began the usual procedure to project their minds to the next world of Abathur’s choosing.

Sweetie and Kerrigan were called to a Dominion world called Cruxas III in the city of New Babylon. A few Swarm Hosts were sent into the city near a small patrol. The Dominion troops were too distracted by the Locusts that they ignored the real threat before it was too late.

The Swarm Hosts moved toward the Carrion Wasp nest and eliminated the nest and Wasps before the Swarm Hosts moved in and devoured the essence in the nest.

Abathur performed alterations to the Swarm Hosts to allow their Locusts to fly. He called them the Carrion Strain. Once complete, the Swarm Hosts demonstrated the locust aerial superiority and ability to reach isolated targets while destroying a couple of Nuclear Silos.

A volcanic world called Ignus was next. The Broodmother on that world was recently killed and her Brood was in danger. One of the indigenous life forms, called an Ash Worm, was attacking the feral brood. Kerrigan took control of the Swarm Hosts there and began hunting the beast. Eventually, the Swarm Hosts’ relentless pursuit wore down the creature and brought it down.

Abathur used the Ash Worm essence to create the Creeper Strain that have the ability to appear anywhere where there was Creep.

The Dominion attempted to wipe out the hive clusters on that world but were repelled by the Swarm Hosts.

Kerrigan had a tough decision to make between the two Swarm Host Strains. In the end, she favored a mobile defense and chose the Creeper Strain.

Sweetie’s demonstration involved wiping out a Dominion base. When the Swarm Hosts she used were within range, the Locusts there were released began to transform into a variety of Terran, Zerg and Protoss infantry. The first wave included Marines, Zerglings and Zealots. The Dominion were confused about why some of their own troops were attacking them since the Locusts disguised as Marines were bearing the Dominion emblem.

The Swarm Hosts released another wave of Locusts that disguised themselves as Firebats, Marauders, Roaches and Stalkers. Each disguised minion was able to use the full abilities of what they imitated. Another wave became Reapers, Hydralisks, Medics, Dark Templar and High Templar. The High Templar minions were able to imitate the original’s Psionic Storm ability. Ghosts and Spectres were also among the possible transformations. Unfortunately, since the Zerg don’t have access to Nuclear Silos, the imitation Ghosts and Spectres were unable to call down Nuclear Strikes.

Once the base was destroyed, the Locusts expired.

“Wide variety of transformations with extended life spans. Utilize specialist unit abilities. Energy requirements high. Impossible for organism Abathur to copy.”

“Like the Swarm Queens, I made them develop mana wellsprings. The transformations are a result of the spawned Locusts using a small portion of the Swarm Hosts’ mana to maintain the transformation. The transformation ability comes from Changeling essence. The species itself required magical energy gained from draining the energy of others in the form of emotions. I worked around that weakness in the essence and these Swarm Hosts are the end result. I call them the Shifter Strain.”

“Impressive, you can make a temporary army with this strain. As long as they are allowed to continue producing more,” Kerrigan said.

The rest of the trip to Korhal was uneventful.

Once the Swarm arrived around the planet, Kerrigan and Sweetie heard a broadcast transmission from Arcturus stating that Korhal was under attack by the Zerg and ordering all ships to return to the capital world of the Dominion.

To prevent any outside interference, Kerrigan ordered Broodmother Kilysa to use her Brood to target any ships entering the system.

A transmission came in from Valerian, <”Kerrigan, this is Valerian. I’d like to ask you to bring your Swarm down outside the city. Most of my people have been evacuated, but we can’t be sure there aren't any stragglers. This will give us some time to locate any who have not heeded the evacuation order.>

“Korhal is going to be the most difficult battle of my life, and you’re asking me to make it harder?”

Valerian stood firm, <”I am.”>

Kerrigan was actually impressed with Valerian’s behavior. Valerian actually sounded like he cared about the well being of the people.

“You seek to be a man of the people?” Sweetie asked, “You certainly are a significant improvement over Arcturus. I hope you are a man of your word as well. The people will need someone they can trust after they were disillusioned by that scandal.”

<”I can’t guarantee that I will keep every promise I make, but I will do what I can to be the man that the people need right now.”>

“That’s all anyone can reasonably ask.” The transmission ended.

Kerrigan turned her attention to Sweetie, “I hope you have a plan because we are about to have a difficult time getting through those planetary defenses.”

“We’re about to find out.”

The space around the Leviathan was filled with a massive swarm of Sweetie’s Bomber Strain Banelings. Sweetie ordered one to charge at one of the defense satellites protecting the planet. At the same time, one of her Swarm Queens put up a shield around the Baneling. The satellites began firing at the Baneling. When the shots were not doing enough to the creature, more satellites joined in and focused fire on the Baneling. The shield finally broke and the Baneling was quickly destroyed.

A smile graced Sweetie’s face. “Yeah, I have a plan.”

An army of Sweetie’s Swarm Queens gathered on top of the Leviathan and prepared for the attack on the defense system. Once the Swarm Queens placed their shields on the majority of the Banelings, the flying suicide bombers charged against the defense satellites. The satellites were unable to effectively deal with the attackers due to lack of individual firepower. Each Baneling that got within a satellite’s minimum attack range had their shields dropped and successfully detonated its acidic payload. A couple of Banelings was all it took to disable each satellite targeted.

Eventually, a huge hole opened up in the defense system and allowed a vast number of Zerg sacs to safely enter the atmosphere. The planetary defense cannons around Augustgrad were still an issue, but thanks to the Swarm Queens, the prioritized sacs landed on the surface. Sweetie and Kerrigan managed to land safely on Korhal after Kerrigan unleashed a wave of power that annihilated the Dominion base that the duo landed in.

“To think that I was here only a few months ago to give a news bulletin,” Sweetie quipped.

“We need to make sure the defense network won’t cause us any problems during the invasion. We need to secure the area and support the Bile Launchers so they can take down those cannons.”

A pair of accompanying Drones, one for each of them, set up a hive cluster to prepare for an attack on the Dominion. Sweetie and Kerrigan each spawned their own minions and prepared to defend the first Bile Launcher that would be landing nearby.

“Sweetie, I’ll defend the Bile Launchers. Deal with the Dominion,” Kerrigan said.

Zagara requested a few gates into the city be busted open to allow her Brood to enter the city.

“I’m on it,” Sweetie replied.

Sweetie spawned a number of Mutalisks and Ultralisks and mutated the Mutalisks into Blight Dragons. She went after the gate northeast of the hive cluster first. With the Ultralisks slashing down the defensive structures and armored vehicles while the Blight Dragons were converting infantry into infested, the first gate was easily torn asunder.

The Dominion struggled to deal with Sweetie’s Equus Brood as its numbers continued to grow either from reinforcements from Ultralisks and Blight Dragons or from the growing number of infested accompanying them.

Sweetie had little trouble tearing down the remaining two gates, allowing Zagara to lead the charge into the city.

By the time the last Bile Launcher they needed to tear down the remainder of the planetary defenses was set up, Sweetie was already engaging the last of the Dominion defenses in the area. The last base outside the gates fell within seconds.

Sweetie and Kerrigan returned to the Leviathan that was holding low orbit over their hive cluster.

Author's Note

Not much to say about the Shifter Strain. While they could shapeshift into any unit, the mana costs would be much higher for the larger units so it was more efficient to limit the variety to infantry and smaller specialists.

Legacy: Awakening the Purifiers

Lyra noticed Tassadar appeared conflicted. When she asked, he stated his concerns about how the Purifiers would react to them after being sealed away for millennia and whether or not releasing them would be a good idea.

Artanis still had faith that the Purifiers would help them, a sentiment that was not shared by those who remember the hundreds of thousands of Protoss who were slaughtered when the machines rebelled against their masters.

Alarak continued antagonizing some of the Protoss and stirring up drama where he could. Lyra could only sigh at Alarak’s antics and hoped that he didn’t end up killing few Protoss who were overly sensitive to their own personal matters.

Lyra began to think that her third master needed to be taken down a peg.

Talandar agreed to act as the Executor of the Purifiers should everything go according to plan. Alarak agreed to the idea...for the wrong reasons.

Lyra had a feeling that Hybrid would be accompanying the Zerg attacking Cybros, after learning of the capabilities of the Tal’darim Havoc, she decided that some damage support would be useful against the Hybrid. She also decided on bringing the Reavers that she remembered from six years ago. Thankfully, they don’t require minerals to keep stocked with scarabs anymore. She traded Stalkers for Dragoons and Vanguard for Annihilators.

By the time the Daelaam arrived on the surface of the space station, Cybros, the Zerg infestation had already taken much of the hull.

Lyra’s intuition was correct as a number of Hybrid appeared among Amon’s hive clusters.

Karax’s analysis of the space station found that Cybros was divided into four distinct quadrants that were kept inactive by three null circuits each. This likely meant that they would need to destroy twelve null circuits to awaken Cybros.

There was also the issue of protecting the exposed core matrix from the Zerg and Hybrid attacks.

While Artanis was setting up the Nexus Point, Lyra teleported in front of the core matrix in order to defend it. Karax placed a Pylon next to the core to activate the preplaced Photon Cannons.

Soon, the Zerg began making a move against the core. Lyra’s fast movement allowed her to slash apart a small group of Zerg headed for the core.

While Lyra was playing defender, Artanis warped in a group of Zealots and Dragoons and began making his push for the null circuits. The small force was able to destroy two that were west of the Nexus Point before Ultralisks came in and forced the Protoss to retreat.

By the time the Protoss force returned to the Nexus Point, Artanis was ready to provide decent fortification for the core by using a Probe to warp in a number of Photon Cannons, Khaydarin Monoliths and Shield Batteries to protect it.

Meanwhile, the Hybrid sensed the strategy that the Daelaam were trying and had their Zerg move to provide increased protection for the null circuits.

Suddenly, part of Lyra had to wonder why the Zerg and Hybrid, as powerful as they were, haven’t broken into the ship and destroyed the Purifiers while they were in stasis.

Regardless, Lyra decided to accompany the group this time, with Havocs and Corsairs added to the group.

A moderate number of Zerglings, Hydralisks, and Ultralisks greeted the Templar as they pushed toward the third circuit. There were also a number of Spine Crawlers defending the circuit.

The Corsairs disabled the Spine Crawlers while Lyra sliced off the blades of an Ultralisk and held them above her in a telekinetic grip. She then Mind Controlled another Ultralisk and jumped on it with intent on using it like a mount. She charged forward on her new mount and used the blades in her telekinesis to cut a swathe through the Zerg defenses, eventually smashing the Ultralisk’s head upon a null circuit, shattering the protections and activating it.

With the destruction of the last null circuit in the quadrant, the first of the four warehouses that contained the Purifier army came online.

Shortly after the activation, a communication was received from one of the Purifiers, <”I am Executor Clolarion. I address the leader of the Firstborn.”>

Tassadar answered the call, <”Executor Clolarion, your deeds are taught to all Templar even to this day...”>

<”Cease your adulation. Why do you seek the Purifiers?”>

<”Brothers, you were created to protect the empire, yet we did not treat you as you deserved, as true Templar. I implore you to forgive our ancestors’ mistakes, to take up your ancient charge once more, and join us as equals.”>

<”We will see if you speak truth. You will aid us in purifying this alien threat. Only then shall we discuss this further.”> With that, Clolarion ordered his Sentinels to engage one of the more secure hive clusters on Cybros and clear out one of the quadrants.

Lyra, meanwhile, was done having fun on an Ultralisk mount and impaled it from the sides with the Ultralisk blades that she was still holding in her telekinetic grip.

Karax warned everyone of a Hybrid advancing on the core. Since they still had some use, Lyra pulled the blades out of the Ultralisk corpse and teleported behind the Hybrid Behemoth heading for the core. She quickly stabbed the creature in the back with the blades before dismembering it and stabbing it in the face with her warp and bane blades.

Artanis began warping in Reavers and Havocs to speed up the decimation of Amon’s Zerg on Cybros.

Lyra took the group with her to attack the hive cluster northeast of the Nexus Point. Despite their slow speed, the Scarabs from the Reavers tore through a number of Ultralisk in the area. Lyra made sure her own rampage went unhindered by placing Overseers and Spore Crawlers into Void Stasis while the Reavers and Dragoons destroyed them once they were freed from stasis.

Once the hive cluster was cleared, Lyra and the group proceeded to shatter the null circuits and activate the second of four warehouses and bringing half of Cybros online.

The awakened Purifiers advanced upon the hive cluster northwest of the Nexus Point. The near limitless number of Purifiers emerging from the warehouse made holding them off an exercise in futility for the Zerg.

More Hybrid and Zerg continued to attack the core, forcing Lyra to personally defend it again. She set the Ultralisks she controlled to attack the Hybrid long enough to distract it before she blasted the Hybrid with her magical and psionic powers then electrocuted the rest of the Zerg attack party with a few Psionic Storms.

Once the attack was repelled, Lyra and her forces pushed against the hive cluster east of the Nexus Point.

Since the Daelaam assault was doing fine without her, Lyra retreated back to the core to protect it from increasingly frequent attacks from Zerg and Hybrid Behemoths. She had returned just in time to repel another attempt to destroy the core.

It wasn’t long before the Daelaam destroyed the null circuits in the eastern quadrant and activated the third warehouse.

The awakening Purifiers were rallied by Clolarion and marched against the hive cluster in the northeast sector.

With only one sector remaining, Lyra believed that the Hybrid were getting desperate and used whatever forces they had to defend the remaining three null circuits.

Lyra accompanied the Protoss forces this time since the Hybrid could only attack from one venue now...at least she hoped so.

While the Protoss engaged the Zerg near the remaining null circuits, Lyra personally made sure the Zerg and Hybrid did not leave the southeastern hive cluster while she engaged them. Karax supported her as best as he could from the Spear of Adun by deploying Fenix and Talandar to support her. He also used the ship’s weaponry to devastate the Zerg and deployed a Pylon near her so Artanis could send some reinforcements to help her.

She didn’t need the support.

Using the Life Drain technique she learned from Alarak, she pulled in a large amount of Zerg life force and converted it into a massive surge of energy before firing it in a large cone ahead of her. The Zerg lost most of their last hive cluster to one Pony.

After the blast, Lyra was completely exhausted from that and collapsed to her knees while she caught her breath. After her stunt she learned not to test the limits of her powers like that again...at least for a while.

Shortly after Lyra’s attack, the Purifiers marched into the hive cluster to finish it off, Clolarion was impressed by the damage that she had done in such a short amount of time.

Meanwhile, since Cybros was a full power, the core matrix began charging its primary weapon. Karax was unable to stop what happened next as Cybros pointed its weapon at the surface of Endion.

<”Commencing Purification,”> Clolarion said.

The weapon fired a massive energy blast that spread a wave of fire and destruction all around the planet, incinerating every Zerg lifeform and all other life on the forest planet’s surface.

Lyra observed the devastation through a nearby display and learned that the Purifiers were not to be pissed off. She could only hope that Aldaris, Rohana or Alarak didn’t screw up the Daelaam’s alliance with their powerful ally.

Author's Note

The Purifiers are now on board with the Daelaam. Look forward to the fun Lyra will have on the Tal'darim homeworld. :pinkiecrazy:

Setting the Foundations for the Future

Two weeks had passed since the agreement made by Celestia and Tassadar to establish a colony on Equus. The agreed-upon colony would be specialized in the research of Equus’ various species and the magic wielded by the world’s denizens.

In exchange, Equestria would receive knowledge of the cosmos beyond their world and help train their Royal Guard.

When the colonists were finally ready to leave, Sweetie was surprised to see who was leading them.

Lasarra approached Lyra and the Alicorns. “My people are ready to leave once you are prepared,” she said.

The Ponies boarded Sweetie’s Leviathan while the colonists warped aboard their ships and prepared for the long journey back to Equus.

Onboard the living ship were Celestia, Luna, Lyra, Sweetie as well as those who volunteered or had nowhere else to go such as Swann, Stetmann, DuGalle, Stukov and Hanson.

Since the four who decided to take up permanent residence on Equus were altered into Changelings, they each decided on what form they would take. Sweetie had informed them that the Ponies of Equus came in a wide variety of colors. Stukov and DuGalle decided they would be Pegasi while Stetmann decided that his form would be a Unicorn and Hanson decided that her form would be an Earth Pony. Their colors were yet to be determined.

Celestia decided to have a talk with Sweetie. With a sad sigh, she said, “I know that you intend to deal with my nephew when we get back. I can only hope that you have had time to consider how you do so.”

“Actually, yes I have decided on a way to punish Blueblood for his actions and even right the wrongs he has committed.”

Celestia’s ears perked. “So you don’t plan to kill my nephew?” she said hopefully.

“Nope, though after what I do, he may wish he were. He is going to provide for the future of the nation whether he likes it or not.” Sweetie whispered her idea to Celestia. She was disgusted with it at first but since conventional means of keeping him under control had failed, Sweetie’s idea became more enticing by the minute.

After thinking it over for a while, she agreed to the proposal on the condition that if she ever tried it on another Pony that she gain permission from both herself and Luna, as well as Cadance and Twilight when they became aware of the duties of the Xel’naga in the distant future.

After about two months of travel, Sweetie’s Leviathan as well as the colonist ships finally arrived over the planet the Ponies called home.

The Protoss ships flew to the part of the planet that was designated by Celestia as unsettled and where they would receive the most sunlight relative to the options.

Since a massive flying organism half the size of Equestria would be met with mass panic, the Ponies teleported to Canterlot’s throne room while Sweetie’s Brood prepared drop sacs to land in the Badlands to establish a forward position near Chrysalis’ hive.

Meanwhile, Sweetie and Lyra had some business to attend to that had been a long time coming.

Prince Blueblood was in his office going through the paperwork that his position continued to pile on him. Most of it was proposals that circulated throughout the nobility and invitations to a noble’s lavish party. While many of the proposals got rejected by his aunt, he considered working with the other nobles to gradually strip the Princesses of enough of their power to push through the proposals that he needed to be pushed through.

He had also heard rumors that the survivor of S.M.I.L.E. was developing an obsession toward avenging her comrades. He began considering whether or not to put a bounty on Sweetie Drops’ head and send the bounty hunters after her while giving him just cause to send his elite guard to hunt her down and eliminate her. After thinking about it, he would set it up next week.

Outside his mansion, two ponies approached the main gate. One was aquamarine-colored with a mane and tail of aquamarine and white and wearing a set of otherworldly golden armor. The other was cream colored with a pink and navy blue mane and tail and wearing a black tuxedo.

While the citizens looked at them with a mixture of curiosity and wariness, the guards at the mansion noticed the duo stop in front of the gates. They quickly raised their guard and raised their rifles. “Who are you?” one of them asked.

The Pony in the suit answered them, “We have an appointment with Prince Blueblood. The name is Sweetie Drops.”

The guards’ eyes became like dinner plates as one moved to raise the alarm but stopped and pulled his hand away from it. When the other guard asked his partner why he didn’t pull the alarm, he suddenly had a change of mind. “Very well, please enter,” the guard said.

Sweetie and Lyra cloaked themselves and entered the mansion. While looking around to find the location of the source of Sweetie’s anguish, one of the servants asked where the master was to which another servant replied that he was in his office going through some paperwork.

The duo followed the servant until she was in front of Blueblood’s office. After she delivered his food and left, the duo entered his office before the door closed. To make sure no one got in or out, Lyra placed a small void barrier on the door to seal it. Sweetie then lifted her cloaking ability.

Blueblood heard the sound of hooves clopping in front of him before the lights dimmed then went out. He lit his horn to figure out the problem and wondered why no sunlight was getting into his room through the windows.

In the next moment, he spotted the one mare that he dreaded meeting again. “Sweetie Drops?! I see, so you have finally come to kill me,” he said as he pushed a button under his desk.

“Don’t bother calling you elite guard to help you. They don’t have the equipment to get past Lyra’s barrier.”

“You even brought that disgrace of a Unicorn?”

Sweetie smirked, “She may not be the scholarly type, but I can say with certainty that she is probably the best assassin on Equus. You can’t even tell she’s right next to you.”

Blueblood jerked his head in every direction to find Lyra but couldn’t find even a trace of her. He then decided to use a detection spell to find her only to find out that he had a blade of crimson light next to his neck.

“Put him against the wall,” Sweetie requested.

Lyra held Blueblood in her psionic telekinesis and pulled him out of his chair and pressed his back against a wall. She bound his body in a Maelstrom.

“Even if you kill me, my aunt will have no choice but to send the Royal Guard after you. You will be a wanted fugitive for the rest of your life. And you just dragged an innocent mare into being an accessory to your crimes,” Blueblood shouted.

“Are you done ranting? I don’t recall saying anything about killing you. All you’re doing is making assumptions when the reality is that you have no idea what I plan to do to you. As for what that is...Let’s just say there are fates worse than death out there. In my travels in the past two weeks...relatively...I have learned that there are worse people out there than you; people who would take billions of lives for the sake of ruling with an iron fist while manipulating people’s opinions to make himself look like a hero. There are those who are so blinded by their pride that their race was divided in accordance to beliefs. There are those who would seek to control an entire race and use them in acts of mass genocide to remake worlds in their own image.

“What I intend to do to you is make you restore the honor of my fallen comrades and to make you confess to the public that you had falsely accused them of treason and that you will clear them of all charges since I know that you were the one who pressed them in the first place. The Princesses will vouch for it since they knew of your crimes in the first place.”

Blueblood smirked, “And how are you going to make me?” His smirk faded and turned to one of horror when he saw a glowing green sphere of slime with an otherworldly lifeform inside.

“This is how,” Sweetie responded as she shoved the sphere into Blueblood’s face. While his face was covered in slime, the lifeform disappeared. Blueblood looked around to see where the creature went but her next words had made him tremble in fear, “I just phased a parasite through your skull and now it’s planted on your brain. Whenever I want it to, the parasite will act in accordance to my will. If you do something I don’t want you doing, the parasite will control you. If you go to a doctor to have it looked at, they won’t find it because I designed it to be undetectable.

“Now for a demonstration, bash your head against the wall three times.” Blueblood did nothing for a few moments before his body started moving on its own and he found himself slamming his face into the wall once...twice...thrice… He regained control of his body immediately after. “Now, you can either fulfill my demands or the parasite will. Also, if you prove to be too dangerous to be kept alive at some point, the parasite knows where the medulla is.”

Blueblood gulped before Sweetie continued, “We will be waiting for a public announcement by the end of next week.” With that, the two mares disappeared and the light returned to the room, leaving him paralized in fear and collapsed in a puddle of his own urine.

A few hours later, Sweetie and Lyra appeared in the new hive cluster in the Badlands after a series of teleports. Stukov and DuGalle were observing the known location of Chrysalis’ hive from where they stood. The two were in their Changeling forms since the mission didn’t call for disguises.

However, the other hive apparently felt a need for disguises since Lyra saw one of Chrysalis’ changelings disguised as a Zergling. Lyra’s detection sight allowed her to see through the disguise.

After Lyra tackled the spy to the ground, Sweetie returned to her Alicorn form and walked up to him and gave him a request, “Tell your Queen this through your hive mind: ‘I want to open negotiations with you. Meet at the location where I’m taking this drone. Bring your two best guards and I will bring mine.’

Two hours later, Sweetie, Lyra and Stukov were waiting for Chrysalis and her entourage. Lyra, who was carrying Shadow Mind, the foal that Sweetie created, teleported ahead to see if the Changeling Queen was coming. When she was spotted, Lyra teleported back to Sweetie. “They should be here in about fifteen minutes at their current speed,” she said.

Stukov spent those fifteen minutes telling Sweetie and Lyra some of his stories from his past to pass the time. A few questions were asked and answered.

Before long, Chrysalis showed up with two of her elite guards. The Queen looked them over and raised an eyebrow. “I don’t remember you among the Royal Family. You must be new.”

“Yes, I am new and yes I know about the Xel’naga matters.”

“Hmph...Celestia must be insane if she thinks the same method will yield the same result. She told me about the role of the Xel’naga the moment I ascended. She ended up forever cursing me into this form just because I wanted nothing to do with her precious Infinite Cycle. Are you here to show me the error of my ways?”

“Personally, I don’t care about the Infinite Cycle. All it is is a means for the Xel’naga to keep themselves going by transferring their essence to a new host for the sake of continued existence. Maybe I will find someone to transfer my essence at some point but not for a pony’s lifetime at least.

“Speaking of the future, that’s what I want to talk to you about. Celestia seems to think that Equestria needs to enter a sort of technological golden age and wants to one day unite the races of this world in preparation for facing whatever lies beyond the stars. I think she and Luna want to create a space empire someday and wants all races on Equus, including yours, to be a part of it.”

Chrysalis growled, “Why should I? She is the reason I have to endure this miserable existence! My Changelings are having to ration love more and more because the Ponies are developing more ways to detect us and flush out our collectors. At the rate we’re going we will likely starve to death within the next few years. And now one of Celestia’s pawns seeks to recruit me for some project I couldn’t care less about? Go to Tartarus!”

Sweetie took a deep breath, “Here’s the thing, one, Celestia never expected me to be a subject for the Xel’naga experiments. Bringing me in on this was Discord’s idea.

Two, I have spent eight years fighting wars in space while only two weeks had passed on this world due to some strange time dilation phenomenon. I have fought a corrupt government who tried to make themselves look good by using alien monsters to attack planets before moving in and destroying them to make them look like heroes. I have survived a volcanic planet while some psychotic infested human bitch was hunting me. I had to deal with an arrogant alien government that were too blinded by their own pride to see that they were losing the war against said alien monsters. I had to outwit said psycho numerous time while I had a parasite in my brain. Then I had to work with said psycho to take down an expeditionary force of humans from a distant world that should have left well enough alone because they were playing with forces beyond their imagination...no offense, Stukov.”

Stukov shrugged, “None taken. I never actually thought the expedition was a good idea in the first place and Gerard was only following orders from the top brass.”

Sweetie turned back to Chrysalis to continue. “I spent about three years travelling the worlds as a mercenary while Lyra fought for her life during that time as a gladiator among an alien race with a violent culture. Lyra and I then went to war against a human regime whose Emperor was willing to watch the universe burn to get what he wanted. I had to free the earlier mentioned psycho bitch from herself so I could be friends with her and we could work together to take down that regime so someone decent could take the throne instead. Then we went to war against Amon himself where we ultimately killed him alongside Celestia, Luna and Discord.

“Three, I am not here on behalf of Celestia. I want to give my Brood a place to settle and I want you and the other Queens to be a part of it. I will become a big part of the Equestrian government soon enough once the Ponies are ready. Times are changing and we need to adapt. I also have something to offer that may help sweeten the deal.”

Chrysalis raised an eyebrow, “And that is…?”

“I have the power to manipulate essence.” Sweetie walked up to one of her guards who took a defensive stance. She teleported behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder before teleporting back to her original spot. “Tell me guard, are you hungry?”

The guard thought about it and said with surprise, “I am hungry...but not for love. It’s something else I’m craving.”

One of Sweetie’s Zerglings showed up on her command. Sweetie gave a silent request to Lyra who handed Shadow Mind to Sweetie before instantly moving next to the Zergling and decapitated it. Sweetie handed their foal back to Lyra and ripped one of the Zergling’s legs off and offered it to the guard who, along with Chrysalis and the other guard, were surprised that the guard was salivating at the sight of the offered meat. He grabbed the offering and started tearing away at the chitin and biting into the flesh beneath, smiling as he savored every bite. When he finished, he grabbed another leg and ate it before telling his Queen that he felt full for the first time in years.

Chrysalis narrowed her eyes at Sweetie. “What did you do?”

“I made a slight alteration to his essence. I changed his body’s need for nutrition from love and switched it for biomass, or meat. You can still eat Pony food and it will be more nutritious than before, though the biomass from Zerg will be the most nutritious from now on. I can do the same to you and your hive. Though I also suggest not overpopulating or indulging since I want there to be a balance between our hives. The consequence would be me culling your numbers to restore balance.

“I’m not asking you to be part of Celestia’s plans, I’m inviting you to be a part of my Brood; to live and fight alongside my Brood. With me, you will survive, you will adapt, and you will evolve. I will deal with anything related to Celestia. I will be upfront with you and say that I have plans for you; plans that will come with the promise of a better future.”

“And this applies to the other Queens as well?”

“Of course.”

Chrysalis hummed, “Do what you did on me.”

Sweetie placed her hand on Chrysalis who felt something inside of her changing. The Changeling Queen walked up to the Zergling carcass and began tearing pieces off of it and devouring them. Her eyes went wide as she began taking bite after delicious bite. She stopped as soon as she felt full. She felt her usual magic reserves being restored.

Upon finishing her meal, she developed a growing sense of hope for a future for her hive. She turned to face Sweetie and walked up to her before kneeling before her. “I pledge my hive to your Swarm, Overqueen of the Changelings and Princess of Essence.”

“Rise! You shall be the first of my Broodmothers. Now let us go and seek the other hives.”

Author's Note

My prereader thought that what Sweetie did to Blueblood was a little grim. What do you think?

For those who don't know what the medulla is, it's part of the brainstem and the part of the brain that regulates involuntary functions such as breathing and cardiac functions. You can probably guess what would happen if that got damaged.

Last chapter is released tomorrow.

Prelude: Lyra Heartstrings

Opening her eyes, Lyra awakens to a world of purple. Everything around her was obscured in a purple haze. She couldn’t make out a single detail of the area around her and the air smelled like copper. As she was getting up from her resting place, she began to feel lightheaded and staggered a little. She quickly lost interest about where she was and simply enjoyed what she was feeling.

Lyra spotted a number of blurry figures moving towards her, but for some reason, she didn’t care. Without thinking, she attacked the figures with fists and hooves as she remembered when observing or participating in Sweetie’s training sessions. Some of the figures had red glowing blades coming out of points that she could only guess were arms.

Feeling no fear, Lyra continued attacking the figures without noticing that amber-colored blade-shaped lights were appearing just a few inches from her hands She viciously attacked the figures until they stopped moving.

The next moment, she came upon a grotesque form. She saw a creature that had no face and many glowing red eyes. Around its head were a number of smooth tentacles, and even more tentacles all over its body.

The fiendish creature glared at Lyra and reached for her with its many tentacles. Lyra tried to run as fast as she could from the beast, but it was gaining on her. The creature soon grabbed onto Lyra’s leg and wrapped itself around her body. Lyra struggled to the best of her ability to escape the creature’s grasp, but she could not break free.

A sharp pain on the back of her neck made itself known to her just before her world went from purple to white.

Lyra opened her eyes slowly as she came to realize that she had a headache. She groaned as she slowly sat up. “Did someone get the number of that carriage?” she moaned.

She soon regained enough mental clarity to look at her surroundings. She was in a small cylindrical space that was filled with a strange, blue-colored energy.

Looking beyond her container, she saw two creatures that were unlike anything that she could have imagined. These beings were tall, very thin, and grey-colored. She saw their digitigrade legs and saw that their feet ended in two clawed toes. Their hands had only three clawed fingers. She could only see the back of their heads but noticed that the hair, what she assumed was hair, on the back of their heads were braided in multiple strands that were held together by a gold-colored ring. The armor that they wore were also gold-colored and designed in such a strange way where large rings go from the back shoulders to the front shoulders in a wide loop. The armor was also adorned in beautiful, smooth, blue crystal. The wristbands that they wore were oddly large for the design and Lyra wondered if there was a reason for this.

“It would appear that you have finally regained mental clarity,” a voice spoke in her head.

Lyra looked around to find another of the beings she was looking at before. She noticed that the being had no face, only a pair of glowing, blue eyes.

“Can you understand me, little one?” the voice spoke into her mind once more.

Lyra realized that this being was not vocally speaking to her, but instead was directly communicating into her mind. The sensation was very foreign to her and left her feeling apprehensive about it. Lyra gathered up enough courage to respond with a nod.

The being noticed her apprehension as he scanned her surface thoughts. “I apologize that we cannot speak to one another using more conventional means. Our entire race and our civilization is based solely on psionic communication. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Executor Tassadar of the Templar caste and our race is known throughout the stars as the Protoss.”

Sensing only curiosity and no hostility within Lyra’s mind, Tassadar orders the guards to open Lyra’s cell. He continued, “I am sure that you have many questions, little one. I can sense a large number of them trying to escape through your thoughts. I will answer them to the best of my ability. Also, you are due for a judicial hearing from the Conclave to explain your presence and actions at the hidden Tal’darim facility a few hours ago. For now, can you tell me your name little one? Also, can you tell me what you are, as there is no mention of your kind in our records?”

At Tassadar’s words, many more questions appeared in Lyra’s mind; "Who is this ‘Conclave'?", "What’s a Talda-whatever?", "What are Protoss", and more importantly "What did I do a few hours ago?" Her memory was a complete blur from up until she woke up in that small cell. Lyra climbed down from the elevated cell and finally spoke. “M-My name is Lyra Heartstrings and I’m a unicorn from Planet Equus,” she said, remembering Discord’s words about being sent to a far away galaxy. “I-I’m sorry, but it seems my memory of those few hours is really hazy. Can you fill me in on what happened?”

Tassadar figured that this would be the case given what happened. “I cannot give you all of the details because we do not know what transpired before we arrived. What I do know is that a strange energy signature appeared where the Tal’darim facility was located. When we arrived we found much of the facility was being flooded with Terrazine gas. We put our best efforts to disperse the gas and by the time we made it into the main atrium, we found you moving about the area in an erratic manner while wielding something akin to psi blades without a focuser.

“After the renegade Tal’darim were killed by your hand, that we saw, you began to panic for some reason and behaved as if you were being strangled. In order to calm you, I had to get behind you and knock you out. We had you placed into a stasis cell until we were sure that the effects of the Terrazine had worn off.

“Alas, you may have done us a great service by exposing these renegade Protoss, but your presence and purpose on Aiur will be called into question. That is the purpose of the upcoming hearing. Speak only the truth and I will ensure that the Conclave is lenient.”

Lyra was more confused than before since many of the terms and names were completely unfamiliar to her. Thankfully, Tassadar was willing to educate her on the terms. She learned about psionic power which, based on his description, had some similarities to unicorn magic. She learned that Terrazine was a psionic enhancement substance that had the side effect of causing strong hallucinations and may lead to psychotic behavior. Based on Tassadar’s description of what happened, she may have inhaled a significant amount of the gas and went on a psychotic killing spree.

That was when it started to sink in: She had killed people. Not just one either, she had killed who knows how many Protoss in her drug-induced frenzy. Panic began to well up within her and that panic was starting to show to others around her. She had never taken a life before now and all of a sudden she kills who knows how many Protoss. Her mind was having difficulty coping with this sudden revelation.

Tassadar, noticing Lyra’s decaying mental state, enveloped her mind in soothing psionic waves to calm her before speaking. “Calm yourself Lyra Heartstrings, for you have done nothing wrong. I can tell from your behavior that you hail from a culture where the taking of another life is not observed often and yet you displayed impressive skill against our enemies. Few enough can wield psi blades without focusers. I can sense great potential in you, Lyra Heartstrings.”

Lyra blushed at Tassadar’s compliment. “That’s nice to hear, I guess,” she said “but I have no idea how I did that. My memory of what happened is too hazy for me to recall how I used that technique. And please, just call me Lyra.”

Tassadar hummed. “Perhaps some training might help you to remember. First though, I would like to confirm something.” Tassadar summoned a nearby Zealot and requested one of his large armbands around his wrist, calling it a focuser. Tassadar gave the focuser to Lyra. The device felt a little heavy to her. “Place that around your arm and channel your energies through it.”

Lyra slipped her arm into the device, which was a little big for her. Lighting up her horn, she channeled her magic into the focuser, hoping that magic was a good enough substitute for the psionic power that Tassadar mentioned. A few seconds later, the crystal in the focuser turned an amber color. An amber-colored concentration of her magic appeared from a hole in the device in the shape of a blade.

Tassadar’s skin changed to a sunny color. He indicated that Protoss express emotions through changes in skin color before he continued. “We may be able to use you after all. The fact that you can wield a psi blade shows that the khaydarin crystals imbedded in the focuser react to your energies. Only those that have at least some psionic potential can create such a reaction. Unusual still that your energies altered the color of the crystal.”

Noticing the time, Tassadar quickly led Lyra to the Judicator Assembly where she was to have her trial.

A semicircle of Protoss sat in chairs that were specifically reserved for them. Each member wore clothing that revealed their place as members of the Judicator Caste. Sitting among them was Judicator Aldaris, who held the will of the Conclave in the highest regard.

Aldaris waited patiently for Tassadar to bring the creature that had blatantly infiltrated their society for some unknown purpose. He questioned why this creature was even being allowed to be given a trial in the first place when she should have simply been executed on the spot. However, Tassadar had used his influence to allow her a hearing, much to his dismay.

The doors to the assembly opened, revealing Tassadar and the creature as they slowly, yet formally walked into the center of the room around where Aldaris and the other Judicators presided. The creature’s posture betrayed any attempts to conceal her anxiety.

Aldaris looked upon the duo condescendingly. “We will now begin the hearing.” He glanced at Lyra. “Please state your name for the record.”

Lyra nervously looked up at the Judicators. She took a deep breath to calm herself. It helped a little. “L-Lyra H-Heartstrings” she said, unable to hide her anxiety.

Aldaris stared for a moment before continuing. “Very well, Lyra Heartstrings. You stand before the Judicator Assembly accused of the crime of illegally entering our world and society. We demand to know of your intentions and how it was that you bypassed our planetary defenses without them alerting us to your presence.”

Lyra recalled the moments before she came to this world and events that day that would lead up to it. She told the Judicators that she was a simple Unicorn from Planet Equus and that her intent was to help her friend find a way to deal with an enemy from her world through seeking power somewhere in this galaxy.

Aldaris grew infuriated as he listened to this Unicorn’s potentially made up story. Before he snapped at her, however, Tassadar intervened. “Aldaris, it matters not where she came from. I have seen into her mind and found that she bears no malice. Whatever had brought her here had resulted in the revelation of a Tal’darim cell that bore malevolent intentions of spreading Terrazine amongst our people. The number of canisters alone could have afflicted half of our capitol city. I witnessed her potential firsthand, Aldaris. She can wield the psi blade like us. She may yet prove useful.”

Aldaris finally snapped. “HAVE YOU GONE MAD, TASSADAR!?” he shouted as his skin turned red,slamming his hands on the podium. “She is not even a Protoss. She bears no loyalty to our order. How can you so easily trust this creature when she may even be plotting our downfall as we speak?”

Tassadar took a moment to gather his thoughts. “I cannot say whether or not she may be trustworthy, however, some part of me tells me that I must help her in her quest to find her friend. For that, I am willing to take responsibility for her actions. I intend to mentor her in the ways of the templar so that she will be able to carry her weight among us.”

“You wish to impart our secrets to this creature?! This is unacceptable! We cannot allow our secrets to fall into the hands of one who is not part of the order.”

“I have no intention of imparting our secrets to her. In the least, she must know how to fight. We have no idea where she came from nor do we know if we can return her to her people. Until we know that, Lyra will make herself useful to us while we seek out her homeworld.”

Aldaris stared at Tassadar for a full minute before debating with the other Judicators about the matter. Ultimately, they decided to make Lyra Tassadar’s responsibility. Tassadar thanked them for their kind decision.

“There is one more matter” Aldaris started. “The sample of the other creature that was brought to us earlier fills us with concern as the reports show that these creatures, known as the Zerg, are seeking out the Terrans. It seems likely that these creatures will begin invading the Terran held worlds soon if they have not begun already. While you are training Lyra, you shall be given orders to accompany an expeditionary fleet to Terran space and purify any world that bears the taint of the Zerg.”

Tassadar began to argue that the action of purifying the Terrans goes against the core principles of Protoss society. “The Conclave has ordered this action and their will is absolute. Do not question the will of the Conclave, Tassadar!” Aldaris retorted. Tassadar relented and left the assembly room with Lyra.

The duo walked toward the training ground with Tassadar deep in thought. Lyra, walking beside him, looked at her new mentor. “Are you alright?” she asked.

Tassadar looked down at Lyra. “It matters not how I feel about this. I cannot question the Conclave. Now come, I must introduce you to two of my former students."

The rest of the journey to the training ground was made in silence as Lyra wondered what his students were like.

Prelude: Chau Sara

A few minutes after leaving the Judicator Assembly, Lyra’s nerves began to calm down as she walked beside Tassadar. Her sense of curiosity soon returned and so began the questions: “So...what are the Protoss?” she asked.

Tassadar chuckled, as much as a race of voiceless, psychic communicators could. “Translated: Protoss means ‘Firstborn’ in our language. It means that we were the first race to come into being in the universe. Our race predates eons, likely far longer than your race has existed. We are a race of warriors who seek honor through combat. We maintain a psionic link to one another thanks to the khaydarin crystals that we wield which we collectively refer to as the Khala. This link was made possible by the Xel’naga; a race of mysterious beings that forged the stars before uplifting our people to become the civilization that you see today. Our race is highly religious, worshiping the beings and the gifts that they bestowed upon us. I would advise caution with your words when you are around those who are not myself or my students as many are not so forgiving as we.”

Lyra nodded noteing to be careful around other Protoss from now on. She did not fully understand much of what Tassadar said about their race, but she learned that they revere these ‘Xel’naga’ for nurturing their race in its early days.

Another thing that Tassadar mentioned is the caste system in place to maintain order: The Khalai are the workers and artisans, the Templar are the warriors and the Judicators are the lawmakers and politicians that run their civilization, while the Conclave are the elder rulers that govern the Judicators.

Tassadar also mentioned a tribe of Protoss that have willfully severed themselves from the Khala to live by their own will. These Protoss were branded as heretics for such an act and became known as the Nerazim, also known as Dark Templar. The Dark Templar were exiled from Aiur a long time ago and it is unknown where they have resettled.

Their conversation was brought to a halt as the duo arrived at the training grounds where Lyra will begin her training as a warrior. Upon arrival, two Protoss walked up to them. “En taro Adun Tassadar, old friend” one of them said. “It has been too long since we have last seen each other.”

The other Protoss turned his gaze from Tassadar to Lyra. He gazed at her for a moment before asking. “Who is this that has accompanied you? I do not recognize her kind from any of the worlds that I have visited.”

Tassadar chuckled. “Nor would you, old friend. This is Lyra Heartstrings. I discovered her in a secret Tal’darim hideout a few hours ago. When I arrived, the enemies were all slain while the facility was flooded with Terrazine. At the time I found her, her mind was addled by the substance. Despite her lack of combat experience, she alone brought death upon our enemies. I counted twenty bodies shortly before they began to disappear. Although, she does not remember her actions and she has never seen combat before today, I can tell that she has great potential as a warrior. I have brought her here today to mentor her training.”

The second Protoss laughed while his skin changed color to reflect his jovial mood. “That is impressive for someone who has never fought before. I look forward to seeing your progress, Lyra Heartstrings.” As his color returned to normal, he stood up to his full height. “I am Praetor Fenix, steward of the templar. I hope to be able to test your skills once Tassadar is through mentoring you.”

“And I am Praetor Artanis,” the first Protoss said. “Fenix, Tassadar and I go back centuries and have explored and fought on many worlds together.”

Tassadar look at the two that he has mentored over the years and it filled him with a sense of pride. “It is good to see that neither of you have changed over our time apart. However, I must see to her training posthaste. The Conclave has tasked me with an important mission in the Terran sector. I will be training her during the mission as well.”

Artanis looked at Tassadar with curiosity. “How will you be able to do that?” he asked. “Can she even wield our technology and if she could, why would you not entrust her training to another? Myself and Fenix are currently in between missions right now so we can spare some time providing her with the basics of combat.”

Fenix glared at Artanis. “What have I told you about involving me in matters without my permission, Artanis?” Although Fenix didn’t like being volunteered, he did admit that he did find the idea of mentoring Lyra to be appealing.

Tassadar thought about the offer that Artanis was presenting and given the preparations that he needed to make for the mission, the idea sounded like something he couldn’t pass up. “Very well, I leave her training to the two of you. I am scheduled to depart in a week’s time and I have much to prepare before then. Artanis, be sure to visit Phasesmith Karax to get her fitted for her own psi blades and armor. Fenix, why not start her off and see what we need to work on.”

Fenix and Artanis nod their heads. “It will be done,” said Artanis.

Tassadar walked away, leaving Lyra in the hands of her new trainers. Lyra tensed at the thought of having to learn to fight and kill from these Protoss. She had never imagined that she would be doing anything other than spending her life playing her lyre. Those who know what her people were like couldn’t blame her since the military were the only ones trained to fight. She had a feeling that the Protoss would dominate the Equestrian Royal Guard in a fight, even with the new weapons that were being introduced to Equestrian society.

Lyra knew that if she wanted to survive to see her Bon Bon again, she would need to develop the fighting skills to protect herself. She also knew that she was going to have a rough time learning to fight from these guys.

One training session later, Lyra wished that her foreboding feelings were wrong. Her muscles were aching from her sparring session with Fenix and she had a number of bruises, that were visible through the fur on her body, from the kicks and punches she had received.

“Your movements are novice at best, Lyra Heartstrings,” said Fenix. “Although, I do commend you for getting one hit in on me. I could also sense hesitation in your attacks. Your behavior is one that is not used to fighting.”

Lyra placed one arm on the back of her head and nervously chuckled. “What little I do know I learned from Bon Bon. Unlike me, she was trained to fight and kill when necessary. Sometimes, I would ask her if I could take part in her exercises. I managed to keep up with her somewhat despite my lack of training. Mainly I entertain others with my lyre.”

Fenix tilted his head. “What is a lyre?”

“A musical instrument with strings.”

“What is a ‘musical instrument’,? For that matter what is this ‘music’ that you mentioned?”

“You know what, never mind,” Lyra said with a sigh.

Fenix thought for a moment then shook his head. “Let’s go find Artanis. We need Karax to get your measurements for your armor and weapons.” Fenix headed toward the forge with Lyra following behind him.

Arriving at the forge, Lyra saw Artanis with who she could only guess was Phasesmith Karax. Artanis introduced Lyra to the Phasesmith and requested for her to be outfitted for her weapons and armor.

Karax beckoned for Lyra to come to him. “This should only take a few moments,” Karax said.

Karax was a patient Protoss that focused on the quality of his work over the political ramblings around him. As a phasesmith, he was part of the Khalai caste, which as far as Lyra knew was where Protoss were categorized if they weren’t warriors or politicians. Karax wore a full body armor that had a red robe with gold border worn over it. The armor was also equipped with two mechanical arms that each had three grasping claws attached to them.

Karax had analyzed Lyra’s form using a crystal designed for that work. The crystal took the necessary measurements that Karax would need to craft Lyra’s weapons and armor. Using the info, he began the design process for Lyra’s weapons. Using technology that was far beyond Lyra’s comprehension, he brought material form to the holographic design that he was working on. Soon, a pair of focusers that were small enough to fit on Lyra’s wrists were floating in midair.

After a few minutes of admiring his work, Karax took the focusers and gave them to Lyra. “It will take some time to design the armor, Lyra Heartstrings. In the meantime, how about you test out these weapons and become used to their feel. I will make adjustments as necessary.”

Lyra thanked Karax and placed the focusers on her wrists. Just like with the previous focuser she wore, the crystals embedded into the weapons also turned to an amber color. When she focused her magic into the weapons, a pair of amber colored energy blades appeared from the ends above her hands. Lyra took a moment to admire the energy swords.

It is not easy to tell when a Protoss is surprised. However, in this case, it does not take an expert on Protoss expressions to know that Karax and Artanis, who were watching what transpired in silence, were surprised at the color change of the Khaydarin crystals in the focusers.

Karax asked Lyra if he could see one of her focusers for analysis. Lyra removed one and gave it back to Karax. What Karax found as he analyzed the device was that there was a mysterious energy form that was flowing through it. Despite his best efforts, however, he was unable to identify the energy signature. He concluded that the energy is unlike anything the Protoss race has encountered throughout the eons of their existence. Finding a way to return Lyra home would prove more difficult than expected.

He handed the focuser back to Lyra while Artanis began making his way to the door and motioned for Lyra to follow. After the duo left, Karax began considering new ideas and new designs for future projects.

Once Lyra and Artanis returned to the training grounds, Fenix, who was waiting for them, began drilling Lyra in basic training exercises and doing his best to help her maintain a proper combat form. Strangely enough, Lyra was taking to the training easier than he expected. However, she still had a long way to go before she was ready for the battlefield, an issue that he was certain that Tassadar would rectify during the course of his upcoming mission.

Several hours later, Tassadar returns to the training grounds. Lyra noticed that he was accompanied by a more slender looking Protoss who’s physical features suggested to Lyra that the newcomer may be female. Tassadar and the new Protoss approached the group and exchanged greetings. Lyra was soon introduced to the new Protoss who went by the name of Selendis.

As it turned out, Selendis was a student to Artanis who has earned her way to a high position among the templar caste. Selendis gave Lyra a wary look as she observed her. For some reason, Lyra had a feeling that she and the female Protoss templar may never truly get along.

“What brings you here, Selendis?” Artanis asked.

“I came to see what the Zealots were fussing about for myself,” Selendis said with a hint of disappointment in her mental tone. “Also, you will receive a communication from the Conclave about your next mission shortly.”

Right on cue, Artanis receives a psionic communication from the Conclave that will send him to some fringe world on the edge of Protoss space and Fenix was to accompany him. They were scheduled to depart in four days, which gave the duo even less time to help Tassadar train Lyra.

“By your leave, Artanis,” Selendis said and she walked away.

Wasting no time, Fenix and Artanis directed Lyra to the training area to begin her training in earnest.

A week went by quickly. Tassadar began personally training Lyra after Artanis and Fenix left on their mission. Tassadar was impressed with the progress that Lyra was making and felt that she would be combat ready in no time.

Tassadar took Lyra outside the city in order to teach her to hunt the local wildlife. In order to help Lyra to not fall apart on the battlefield, he intended to use this exercise to help her get acquainted to the idea of taking lives. He knew this was not an easy task given the culture that she hailed from. As expected, Lyra did have some difficulty killing the wildlife and some of the more vicious creatures nearly killed her. In time, she soon was able to kill a beast without freezing up and leaving herself vulnerable. Tassadar knew though, that killing a beast was different from taking the lives of sapient creatures like the humans, that experience will have to come from the battlefield.

Onboard the Gantrithor, the Protoss flagship for the expeditionary fleet, Lyra stared in amazement at all of the systems that were present. She already knew that the Protoss were far beyond all of Equus in terms of technology, but the fact that the Protoss can create such advanced technology from crystals really blew her mind. Many of the ship’s interface systems looked like magically conjured images that she had seen during her brief time as a student at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. Even learning as much as she could about Protoss technology during her first week with the enigmatic aliens did not fully prepare her for the wonders of being inside an actual spacecraft.

Stranger still, she thought, was the fact that she was able to retain more of that knowledge than she figured that she was capable. Normally, her mind was easily distracted that most of what she heard went in one ear and out the other. It was the reason that she flunked out of Celestia’s School. However, as her training progressed, she began to notice that her mind was more focused, as if something had made some slight changes to her ability to retain knowledge. This change may also explain how she was able to remember the combat lessons her mentors have been imparting on her.

However, while her mind may be soaking up the lessons, her body was not yet able to keep up with her mind; an issue that can be fixed with time and dedicated physical training, something that she was still not looking forward to.

Since Protoss do not consume food and instead sustain themselves on sunlight and moonlight, Tassadar had gatherers search for any flowers and other vegetation that was considered safe for Lyra to consume and placed what was gathered in stasis fields for the journey to prevent the flora from getting spoiled.

“Are you prepared for your first journey into the stars, Lyra?” a voice asked into her mind, jarring her out of her thoughts.

Lyra looked around and saw Tassadar behind her. “Oh! Yes!” Lyra quickly answered, giving away how distracted she was.

“Are you feeling alright?” He asked, with a hint of concern.

“Yeah, I’ve just been remembering this past week and how I’ve been learning so many new things in such a short time.”

“I would have figured that our lessons might have been overwhelming for you at first. However, you have shown a remarkable ability to retain such knowledge, despite what little you have told us about your past.”

“I’m actually surprised as well. Usually, I’m too scatterbrained to remember a lot of what others tell me.”

“Hmm,” Tassadar placed a hand on his chin. “Perhaps your exposure to terrazine has had a lasting effect upon your mind. Regardless, we must depart.”

Tassadar ordered the crew to begin the launch sequence. As Lyra eagerly awaited the beginning of her journey into space, her thoughts focused briefly on her marefriend. She held onto hope that she and Bon Bon will see each other soon.

The ship began to gain altitude from Aiur’s surface and before long, was in orbit above the planet. Lyra noticed a number of other ships were closing in on the Gantrithor’s position and positioning themselves to face the same direction that the flagship was pointing. Lyra was soon met with the feeling similar to being shot out of a cannon. However, she was not swept up by the inertia which was due to the systems in place to prevent that.

With the expeditionary force on their way to Terran space, Tassadar beckoned for Lyra to follow her to the ship’s training room. On the way there, she noticed that a number of Zealots were being held in suspended animation for the journey. She and Tassadar would be spending most of the journey training for the battles to come.

The duo entered the training room which featured artificial image projectors that were made to simulate the Hallucination ability that is used by the High Templars. There were a few Zealots making use of the facilities to keep their skills sharp and a few Dragoons, quadrapedic robotic shells that are piloted by physically crippled Protoss warriors, practicing their accuracy with their built in photon disruptors.

Lyra and Tassadar made their way to an undisturbed area of the room. Tassadar turned to face Lyra and assumed a combat stance. “Let us see what you have learned from my students from this past week. Come at me with everything that you have.”

Lyra gulped and assumed her own combat stance that she had been practicing with Fenix. She took a deep breath to calm herself and prepared herself for the painful lessons that were coming.

The time spent training with Tassadar had been quite productive. In time Lyra not only learned how to handle herself against opponents using ranged weapons by fighting against the Dragoons, but she also learned how to project an effective combat shield to give her some protection on the battlefield. Lyra’s confidence has also improved to the point where she was quite sure of herself when she was sparring against some of the Zealots. While training against some of the High Templars, she figured out how to create images; a feat that was seen as nothing short of impressive given the time she had actually been training.

On the bridge of the Gantrithor, Tassadar stared at one of the Terran-controlled planet that the fleet was holding orbit over. Initial reports have stated that a Zerg presence was detected on the planet. Close range analysis have found that the Zerg are running rampant on the planet while the Terran military are doing the best they can to control the situation; an action that Tassadar knew was doomed to failure. Earlier, he put in a request to the Conclave to determine the next course of action and now he is awaiting a response.

“Executor, we are receiving a transmission from the Conclave” said one of the crew members.

“On screen” Tassadar responded.

A flat, rectangular, holographic image appeared in front of Tassadar. On that screen was displayed an image of Aldaris, the representative of the Conclave. “The Conclave has reviewed your report and has given orders to have the planet purified.”

Tassadar was surprised by this order. The Conclave has practically ordered an act of genocide against a race that was supposed to be protected. To ‘purify’ a planet would mean to bombard the planet with their weapons until all life readings on the planet were non-existent. Such action would be a violation of the Dae’Uhl, one of the core principles of Protoss society that would have the lesser races, such as the Terrans, to be protected from threats such as the Zerg.

“Aldaris,” Tassadar started. “What the conclave is suggesting is clearly a violation of the Dae’Uhl. There has to be another way to resolve this. If we act fast enough, perhaps we--”

Aldaris was beginning to turn red. “You have your orders, Tassadar. The Conclave’s will is absolute. Do not question their orders again.” he interrupted, with a clear hint of a threat in his words.

Tassadar paused, the weight of such a solemn act has been thrust upon his shoulders. “It will be done,” he said.

The transmission ended. Tassadar stood in silence as Lyra walked up to him. She was shocked beyond belief about what the Conclave had ordered him to do. She had never in her life imagined such a thing could ever happen, and yet, it was about to happen right before her eyes.

“You can’t do this! They are ordering you to kill innocent lives. What if Bon Bon is down there?” she said, tears starting to form in her eyes.

“We have our orders, Lyra,” Tassadar said in a saddened tone. “The least that we can do is scan the planet for any creatures that bear a close similarity to your genetic profile.”

Tassadar ordered one last scan of the planet’s surface for any equine signatures before ordering the fleet to charge up their main weapons. Much to Tassadar’s and Lyra’s small relief, the scans came back negative so Lyra was glad, at least, that they were not about to kill Bon Bon by accident.

Once the fleet’s ships had their weapons fully charged, Tassadar hesitated for a moment before ordering the ships to open fire on the planet’s surface.

The resulting display of bright lights being fired from the ships left a stunning, yet horrifying impression on Lyra as the beams of photon energy made contact with the surface. The resulting explosions were widespread as they expanded to cover every inch of the planet’s surface. With each explosion, Lyra imagined millions of lives being extinguished in an instant. The sorrow that Lyra felt was unlike anything that she has ever felt before. It threatened to overwhelm her.

Tassadar did his best to calm Lyra’s turbulent emotions, but they were beginning to affect him as well. He briefly felt the anguish that she felt and began to question whether or not he was doing the right thing. He buried those thoughts quickly as he noticed that she was beginning to lose consciousness from the stress. He managed to catch her before she fully passed out. He had her placed in a nearby empty chair until she regained consciousness.

Meanwhile, their sensors had picked up a small force of Terran ships that were closing in on their position. The ships soon engaged with the fleet in a desperate ploy to avenge the lives taken this day. Tassadar, believing that enough blood had been shed today, ordered the fleet to ignore the Terrans and begin moving toward their next target destination.

A world called Mar Sara.

Rebel: Wasteland Relocation

In just three weeks, Sweetie Drops has developed an authoritative reputation in Mar Sara’s capitol city, partly because of the number of people she sent to the hospital when they started hitting on her. Apparently, there are a lot of weirdos who would like to get it on with an alien and some who want to make out with a horse or pony. Being a partner with Marshal James Raynor had also helped improve her reputation as a local law enforcement officer. Raynor was glad that he didn’t have to spend any time to train Sweetie. In fact, she has proven that she could kick his ass in a fight.

The only issue that Raynor had noticed was that she had difficulty operating the standard Confederate Marine Corps Powered Combat Suits, or CMC Suit. The issue was that is that they were designed for people with feet and Sweetie had hooves instead of feet. Because of this, she was also unable to handle the C-14 rifles that Marines are standard equipped. It was too big to wield effectively without the suit. Thankfully, the weapons market was selling an old C-10 MK I rifle that fires explosive rounds for her to use. Mar Sara didn’t have the facilities to train Ghosts so Sweetie was lucky that the weapons market was even selling one. Even without armor, Sweetie was more than agile enough to avoid gunfire when fights broke out in the city.

The citizens of Mar Sara have seen Raynor and Sweetie as an effective marshal and deputy duo who kept the streets safe...for the most part. The city was still relatively large and the two of them could not be everywhere.

Today, however, some news had started going around the Confederate worlds about an incident that occured four days ago at the Chau Sara colony. The news had mentioned a large fleet of aliens had annihilated everything on the planet unprovoked. The news stations didn’t give a lot of details about the attack and this made Sweetie suspicious that there was some sort of cover up going on since the media would normally have enough details about a major event less than four days after the incident. Sweetie put her suspicions in the back of her mind as she had no proof to pursue those suspicions.

Raynor was looking up any local news and hummed when he found something interesting.

“Looks like our new Magistrate is gettin’ ready to test some of the colony’s militia equipment. Mighty convenient timin’ for the confederates to be pickin’ a new Magistrate only a few days after Chau Sara went dark.”

“Yeah,” said Sweetie. “The news is not saying much about the incident either. It leads me to think the confederates are up to something and we are going to be the ones paying for what happened over there.

“I’ve also heard rumors of an unidentified species roaming the wasteland. As far as the records show, the unknown creatures are not even shown in the database. Maybe I am just being paranoid, but my past experiences with government tell me that there may be a cover up going on. If the unknown creatures were native to the planet, the Confederates or some past exploratory group should have found them some time ago.”

“You may be right darlin’” Raynor said. “But as far as the matter is concerned, this ain’t none of our business. We’re simply here to make sure the streets are safe. We don’t got time to be roamin’ the wasteland for these critters.”

A series of beeps from their communicator interrupted their conversation. Raynor activated the device to reveal a holographic image of a metallic person’s head, one that looked like a female human with numerous cybernetic enhancements. The figure in particular was the Magistrate’s personal adjutant, a sort of mechanical secretary that organizes the affairs of its owner.

“Greetings Marshal James Raynor and Deputy Sweetie Drops. The Magistrate requests your assistance in an important matter” the adjutant said.

“Well,” Raynor said. “What does our new Magistrate want with me?”

“Due to the recent destruction of the Chau Sara colony by the protoss, Confederate troops are scrambling to protect the colonies nearest Chau Sara. This colony will soon be placed under lockdown by order of General Edmund Duke of the Confederate Security Forces Alpha Squadron. The Magistrate requests your services to escort the core colonists to the outlying wasteland for the duration of the lockdown.”

Something about this seemed off to Sweetie. If the mysterious aliens that the people are calling the Protoss were going around blowing up worlds, then why were they being relocated instead of evacuated until the Protoss threat was dealt with? She could no longer ignore the nagging feeling of a conspiracy going on with the Confederacy.

The transmission ended once Raynor affirmed his acceptance of the Magistrate’s request. “Well Sweetie, looks like we got work.”

Sweetie sighed. She picked up her rifle and slung it over her back and the duo walked out the door of their office.

In an alley around the corner of their office/home, there was an armed hoverbike called a Vulture locked securely in position to make sure any would be thieves didn’t try to steal it. Sweetie waited around while Raynor undid the locks on his bike. Her thoughts began to wonder about how this situation stinks of trouble.

Sweetie was pulled from her thoughts by the sound of a revving engine. She turned to see that Raynor was waiting for her to get on the bike.Sweetie sighed as she got on the seat behind Raynor and held on to him. Once she confirmed that she was secured, Raynor revved the bike once more before suddenly taking off at a breakneck speed. Sweetie tightened her grip on Raynor as they traveled down the roads leading out of the city and into the wasteland.

As the duo was making their way to the escort route where they were expected to rendezvous with the colonists, they encountered a few hostile creatures that had never been seen on this planet before.

The creatures were about the size of humans and walked on four clawed legs. Their bodies appeared to be covered in some form of hard exoskeleton and had a pair of long, thin tendrils that had claws at the ends. Their teeth clearly showed that they were strictly carnivorous and there appeared to be horns on the sides of their heads.

Raynor and Sweetie each fired an explosive round at each of the creatures, frag grenades from Raynor’s vulture and explosive rounds from Sweetie’s rifle.

Times like this were when Sweetie was thankful that she took the proper courses in handling projectile weapons during her agency days.

Their combined firepower was all that was needed to reduce the creatures to bloody stains on the wasteland.

The duo arrived at the rendezvous point and waited for the colonists to arrive. While they were waiting, they saw a few more of the creatures and decided to go after them to relieve the boredom a little.

A few hours later, Sweetie and Raynor heard an open transmission from one of the colonists complaining about being sent to the wasteland and his disdain toward the Confederacy. It didn’t take long for the colonists to meet up with Raynor and Sweetie.

Raynor and Sweetie introduced themselves to the colonists and began making their way toward the wasteland site where they would be setting up a base camp. They encountered more of the creatures along the way, but with the Marines bolstering their numbers, the creatures could not even get within a few feet of anyone.

The group made it to the camp. It was composed of a large, round building that served as a Command Center for the camp. There was also a smaller building that contained a limited amount of supplies for the colonists to use. There was also a moderate outcropping of blue crystals, which the Space Construction Vehicles, or SCVs, began moving toward in order to begin harvesting them. Sweetie had no idea why these minerals were so valuable to the humans, but decided to just leave the matter be.

One of the SCVs began constructing what appeared to be a rectangular building on legs. Setting up additional construction equipment allowed the SCV to quickly finish constructing the building that the other colonists referred to as a barracks where the unarmed people could be fitted into combat suits and equipped with those big C-14 rifles.

Sweetie also watched Raynor release something from a secret compartment in his bike. It looked like a small, bulbous device on small legs. When Sweetie asked, Raynor called them Spider Mines, defensive mechanical drones that carry a powerful, explosive payload. When its built in IFF sensor picks up an enemy, the mine jumps out of its hiding place and rushes towards an enemy and explodes.

A point was made when one of the creatures got too close to the base camp and a mine jumped out of the dirt that it had buried itself into earlier. It rushed up to the creature and detonated its explosive payload.

There was nothing left of the creature to identify.

Sweetie’s eyes widened at the terrifying implications of these mines. Raynor further explained that Vultures can only be equipped with three mines at a time.

Sweetie, still stunned at this seemingly dangerous piece of military hardware, nodded slowly.

Raynor and Sweetie began to make themselves comfortable in the new base since they could not go back to town due to the lockdown.

With the number of unidentified creatures increasing on Mar Sara, Sweetie had a feeling that things were about to get a lot worse and soon.

Author's Note

The Rebel Yell arc will include the two hidden missions.

Rebel: Backwater Station

Sweetie looked around in the wasteland site Command Center, trying to admire the facility. The place, at least, appeaed like the necessary functions are still working, such as the SCV manufacturing wing, a sort of internal supply depot that holds supplies for at most ten troops or SCVs, a reactor room that, apparently, was made to power the thrusters that lift the entire building into the air if necessary, the mineral storage facility, and another storage facility for another resource that was unknown to her at the time.

Raynor later explained the need for a gaseous resource that is used to fuel vehicles and other functions called vespene which is first processed from a Refinery that is built on top of a geyser for efficient collection and processing before SCVs transported it by the barrel to the Command Center.

The Magistrate arrived at the Command Center with a briefcase in hand, saying that he managed to obtain some schematics for important militia functions before the city was fully locked down. The schematics were for a refinery to process vespene gas and an engineering bay. The researchers came up with an idea to improve militia weapons and armor and needed the proper facilities to begin researching improvements.

Unfortunately, he was unable to obtain the Academy schematics before his escape from the city and that building had the facilities necessary for certain research subjects and, more importantly, the equipment needed to manufacture the specialized suits that are worn by the militia Firebats, close range soldiers with fuel tanks strapped to their backs which are needed for their built in flamethrowers.

They didn’t have time to lament about the loss of that tech as Raynor walked into the Command Center. He walked up to the Magistrate and shook his hand. “Hey, what’s up man?” Raynor started. “Got your refugees tucked in nice and tight. Provided you can sidestep any more surprises from our Confederate friends...” saying the last part with some sarcasm “...and we can keep them away from those critters, they should have an easy time.”

Suddenly, the Magistrate’s adjutant received an alert of a distress beacon that was activated from the nearby Backwater Station, stating that the unidentified creatures are attacking the station. The adjutant automatically sent an alert to Confederate HQ.

The Confederate reply came in the form of a transmission from General Duke. He ordered that no action was to be taken by the militia and that his forces will handle it.

Duke’s order did not sit right with Sweetie. The militia at least had enough firepower to protect some outlying station and they were close to it. Why were they ordered to ignore the distress beacon? She felt that there had to be some sort of connection between the Confederacy, Backwater Station and the unknown alien organisms. Unfortunately, she did not have enough information to make the connections just yet.

Apparently, Raynor had the same feeling about the order. He decided to go against standing orders and convinced the Magistrate to send in some militia troops to see if they could salvage the situation.

Raynor headed out of the command center with Sweetie right behind him. The two quickly got on the vulture bike and rode off in the direction of Backwater Station.

Raynor and Sweetie arrived near the station and waited for any colonial reinforcements. It wasn’t long before they were met with a few Marines and SCVs. The Magistrate even sent a Command Center and Barracks flying toward their location. While waiting for the mobile buildings to set themselves up, the SCVs set up a modest supply depot.

While the base was setting up, Raynor and the troops found a small group of the creatures dangerously close to the base. One opened its mouth long enough for Raynor to launch a frag grenade into it. The rest of the group was gunned down by Sweetie and the Marines.

Once the area was secure, Sweetie took Raynor to a private area to talk to him about her concerns for the situation.

“What’s up?” Raynor asked.

Sweetie closed her eyes for a moment to gather her thoughts then opened them again. “There is something about these creatures that the Confederacy does not want us to know about. Something tells me there’s more to these aliens than we know and the Confederacy is keeping tight-lipped about it. I suspect that there might be a connection between the two and if I’m right, there is something more sinister at play.”

Raynor blinked, trying to process what Sweetie said.

“Our operation here may likely be met with a Confederate force to arrest us,” she continued.

Raynor sighed and put a hand on Sweetie’s shoulder. “If they do, I’ll distract them while you escape. I’m sure you’ll find some way to bust my ass outta prison. I’d rather it’s me that gets captured since I’m sure they would send you to somewhere to get experimented on,” he said as he remembered a similar sacrifice an old friend of his once made for him.

Sweetie knew that Raynor was right. She still needed to get off world somehow and start looking for Lyra and being sent to some secret experimental facility was the last thing she needed. It still bothered her to leave a friend to be unjustly arrested though.

<”Raynor, come in. Over.”> One of the militia leaders spoke over the comms.

Raynor held a finger to his communicator. “What’s up?” he said to the person.

<”We have a squad of Marines geared up and ready to go, sir.”>

“Alright, I’m headin’ there now.” Raynor took his finger off the transmitter and looked at Sweetie. “Don’t worry about what might happen darlin’. Just focus on the here and now and we will deal with what comes after when it happens.” With that, Raynor walked away into the main area of the base. Sweetie followed shortly after.

The duo boarded Raynor’s bike and drove it over to the awaiting Marine squadron.

These Marines appeared different from the ones they saw earlier. Their armor and weapons looked improved over the ones before. Apparently, the colonial scientists really came through on their improvements.

Moving slow enough for the Marines following to keep up, the duo made their way to the base of a small slope in the cliffs.

When the duo made it to the top of the slope, they saw something truly horrifying. The land in front of them was covered in some dark purple substance. The substance appeared to be writhing, almost or possibly may be alive. Wandering around in that substance were more of those alien creatures. They moved around in the substance as if they were right at home.

In the center of the writhing mass, Sweetie noticed another living creature; a massive creature that although appeared living, also appeared to be rooted into the ground.

They needed to get through the substance to get to the station. Thankfully, Sweetie was on a hoverbike because she really did not want to know what might happen to her if she walked into that stuff bare hooved.

The group engaged and quickly dispatched the creatures that were running around, then started firing at the living structure. To everyone’s surprise, the large creature offered no resistance and was quickly reduced to a bloody pulp.

As the group advanced, Sweetie noticed that the substance was starting to dry out and turn into dust in the wind. “Was that house-sized creature somehow connected to the creepy substance?” she thought.

The group entered the Backwater Station perimeter. It was a small base that had some Bunkers that offered some protection from enemies while allowing them to attack from small holes in the structure. The camp even had a fully functional Academy like the plans for one that the Magistrate wanted to get but didn’t have the time to obtain.

The building also contained a stockpile of special depleted uranium rounds that can be fired for slightly longer distances than regular rounds. There was also a storeroom that was stocked with powerful, but life-threatening stimulant drugs and Firebat suits. Why a building like this was needed when there must have been more efficient means of getting different types of suits to a Barracks was beyond Sweetie’s understanding.

The station’s residents, who were hiding in the bunkers, emerged and thanked their rescuers for coming to their aid. A couple of things were said by their new charges that were of interest to Sweetie. The fact that they have been hiding for days being the first. If the station had been under attack for that long, why had the Confederates not come to their aid sooner? Did they not even care about them? The second thing they called these creatures the Zerg. While not as important as the first point, at least she now had a name for these creatures.

Among those stationed in the bunker were a couple of SCVs and a few Firebats. “How do SCVs fit in a bunker anyway?” Sweetie thought. The firebats were integrated into the attacking group while the SCVs resumed harvesting from a nearby mineral field for whenever they needed to fund replacements for dead troops.

The group moved forward and encountered another area with that creepy substance. This area was more heavily defended but the Zerg were soon met with the flamethrowers of the Firebats. Sweetie watched with grim fascination as the creatures were roasted alive from within their own shells. After that, the group unleashed their firepower on the helpless structure. Once again, Sweetie noticed that the writhing ground was slowly dying. She was reasonably sure at this point that the structures were creating the living ground.

The path led to a small slope down the cliff into a small valley. What she saw was a new type of Zerg. This Zerg had a head that appeared at least a meter long, maybe two. There were two sets of jaws: an inner one and an outer set that opens down the middle. It had segmented arms that ended in scythe-like bony claws and had a serpentine lower body. It also appeared to be of a slightly tougher build than the smaller creatures that Sweetie was used to seeing.

When the group engaged the Zerg, the larger ones began shooting something at the group. Acting on instinct, Sweetie jumped behind the troops. The projectiles that were shot at them were razor sharp spines that were coated in poison. The spines were able to puncture through the armor of the soldiers. Without proper armor, Sweetie doubted that she would be walking away with just a flesh wound.

The concentrated firepower of the Marines, Firebats, Raynor’s grenades and Sweetie’s explosive shots made quick work of the Zerg as they cleared their way to another slope up another cliff. The group was quickly met with moderate resistance from the small and large Zerg. A few militia ended up succumbing to their wounds, but the Zerg were soon wiped out along with the remaining substance generating structures in the area.

What they found next made Sweetie shudder. An abandoned Command Center awaited them. This one appeared to have a mass of organic growth running all around the structure. Sweetie saw enough of the markings in the structure to know that the building was property of the Confederacy.

“What the hell did they do that Command Center?!” one of the Firebats said.

“Whatever it is, it ain’t natural.” Raynor responded. “Burn it boys.”

While the Marines started shooting holes in the structure and the Firebats worked on burning the organic growth, a transponder signal detected Confederate forces en route. Sweetie and Raynor knew that being caught busting up their stuff was going to lead to trouble.

“Think you can drive this old girl Sweetie?” Raynor asked, looking at her.

Sweetie realized that this was how Raynor was going to help her escape. As much as she really wanted to help Raynor get out of this jam, she couldn’t afford to get caught. Thankfully, she had closely watched Raynor enough to know the basics of driving a Vulture. She sighed and nodded.

“Hand me your communicator, there’s a transponder in it that would allow them to track you.”

Sweetie handed her communicator to Raynor, who had gotten off the bike. He walked up to the besieged command center and tossed it into the burning mess.

“I’ll take the heat for this. Go find the Magistrate he should be able to find some way to get you off world.”

Sweetie hesitated for a moment before revving the bike and taking off toward the Magistrate’s base.

Over the radio, Sweetie overheard an open broadcast from General Duke: “Marshal Raynor, by destroying a vital Confederate installation, you and your men have violated standing colonial law. As of right now, you’re all under arrest. I suggest you throw down them weapons and some peaceably.”

“Haven’t you been paying attention!?” Raynor snapped. “That damn factory was infested and these damn creatures are everywhere! How ‘bout instead of worryin’ ‘bout your precious installation, you help us out with these things.”

“Be that as it may,” Duke responded. “You are ordered to stand down and surrender.”

The sound of weapons dropping was heard over the radio with Raynor muttering something about Duke and Confederates being assholes.

“Where is your deputy Raynor?” Duke asked. “Ah know she was with you during your rebellious act.”

“Last I saw, she ran into that wreck of a building lookin’ for survivors” Raynor lied. “Don’t believe me? Her transponder signal is comin’ from in there.”

Duke was not stupid enough to believe Raynor’s lie, but he also had no way of tracking her at the moment. “No matter. Perhaps some interrogation might get you to talkin’.”

Sweetie stopped her bike for a moment and cursed at her own inability to help her friend. She intended to get back at the Confederates for this injustice.

With her new vow, she drove off in the direction of the Magistrate’s camp.

Rebel: Mengsk Reaches Out

Other than a few small Zerg, the drive back to the Magistrate’s camp was nothing noteworthy. As Sweetie entered the camp, some of the militia started pointing their rifles at her. “Word about the Confederates wanting to arrest me must have traveled to the militia,” she thought. Sweetie was about to make a run for it when they suddenly acted as if they were receiving a communication. The guards complied with whoever was on the other end before looking at Sweetie again.

“The Magistrate wants to talk to ya” one of the guards said. He motioned for Sweetie to enter the base.

Sweetie, deciding that accepting the Magistrate’s invitation would be the best option, entered the base and headed into the Command Center where the Magistrate was currently residing.

Inside, Sweetie found the Magistrate going over reports. She noticed a distressed look on his face. As she approached the colonial leader, he moved his head up to address her.

“Mind telling me what the hell happened over there?” the Magistrate inquired. “The local Confederates are in an uproar over something, Raynor is missing and now there’s a warrant for your arrest.”

Sweetie recounted the series of events from engaging the creatures that the crew of Backwater Station called the Zerg to burning down an Infested Command Center that belonged to the Confederates and Raynor got arrested over it. Apparently, to her, the Confederacy would rather get upset over a building than the increasing number of Zerg showing up. Either the Confederacy are a bunch of idiots or they are somehow working with the Zerg and hiding it rather poorly.

The Magistrate was clearly upset over having his Marshal arrested. “The only thing I can do right now is issue a formal complaint and request a report on what the Confederates are doing out there.”

“I’m pretty sure they are just going to throw it in your face,” Sweetie said. “As for the report, I’m willing to bet that Duke has done nothing to stop the Zerg, and is instead working against us.”

The Magistrate sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I hate to admit it, but you’re right about the complaint being pointless. I’ll file it anyway as a formality at least.” The Magistrate looked at his adjutant. “Adjutant, I would like to request a report on the Confederacy’s actions on Mar Sara and reports on Zerg movement.”

“Acknowledged” said the adjutant.

A few hours later, the Magistrate received a transmission from Duke. What he said was everything he expected him to say. Duke couldn’t care less about what the Magistrate thought about Confederate regulations.

Once the transmission ended, the adjutant gave him the report that he requested. “Sixteen outland stations have reported sightings of the alien invaders identified as Zerg.”
That wasn’t good. The creatures are showing up in even greater numbers now. “Where are these things coming from?” the Magistrate thought.

“The Confederates have arrested all standing militia forces and continue to avoid action against the Zerg” the adjutant continued.

This appears to coincide with Sweetie Drops’ suspicions that the Confederates and the Zerg are cooperating in some way, or that they are actually afraid to engage the Zerg, since they continue to ignore the proverbial elephant in the room. “If this is the case, then we are in way over our heads on this and we need to get the colonists off this planet before we’re overrun,” the magistrate thought.

“Three stations have fallen to the Zerg already.” the adjutant continued.

“Is there anyone outside of the Confederacy who we can call for help?” Sweetie asked.

“There is one military group that we have been able to contact. However, this group has been branded as criminals by the Confederacy. They are the rebel extremist group known as the Sons of Korhal.” the adjutant said. “Shall I put you through?”

Seeing no other option that doesn’t result in the colony getting wiped out, the Magistrate affirmed his request with the mechanical secretary.

For some reason, the man appearing on the screen made Sweetie feel wary of his presence. She could not understand why she felt this way except that her instincts told her to be careful around this person.

“Good day, Magistrate. My name is Arcturus Mengsk, and I represent the Sons of Korhal. You’re familiar with the Confederate propaganda surrounding my group, but your reputations suggests you’ll see past it. It’s never been our practice to operate in any one place for long, but these Zerg don’t look like they’re going to wait.”

“Look, Arcturus Mengsk,” Sweetie interrupted. Both turned their eyes to her. “I’m sure you’re aware that this colony is about to be overrun by Zerg at the rate at things are going. What we want to know is if you can get us and the colonists off this rock before then.

“I am also aware that you being part of a criminal organization means that we will be fugitives from Confederate law if we accept your assistance. But at this point, I just don’t care. The Confederates suck and this entire situation that they are partially to blame for happening sucks. So, just come and get us and step on it.”

The magistrate and Mengsk blinked for a few seconds. “Uhh...what she said” the Magistrate said.

Mengsk regained his composure soon after. “Very well, transports are on the way.”

“While you’re at it,” Sweetie added. “Some of the militia forces as well as a friend of mine was captured and imprisoned by the Confederates. Is there any chance you can break them out?”

“I don’t see why not” Mengsk said, showing signs of irritation with the requests that Sweetie has been asking of him.

The transmission ended and the magistrate began ordering the colonists to the evacuation zone of the city. The colonists were evacuated from the wasteland site safely before it came under attack from the Zerg.

The colonial forces arrived at the evacuation zone and began establishing a perimeter using Bunkers to protect the soldiers while they protected the new base. The magistrate obtained the remainder of the colony’s schematics and ordered the perimeter to be reinforced with Missile Turrets in case some new type of Zerg ends up being flyers. A Factory was quickly constructed by the SCVs in order to build more Vulture hoverbikes like the one Raynor has.

The basics of a base had been established just in time before the adjutant pinged an alert. “Warning! Evacuation zone under attack by Zerg forces. Distress beacon activated at 1220.”

In that moment, a colonist with a defective Vulture crashed his bike into one of the Bunkers, heavily damaging it and the bike. Somehow, the two were easily repairable by the SCVs and the biker began demanding one to repair both the Bunker and the bike.

Rolling her eyes at the clumsy biker, Sweetie took position on the roof of a building next to a convenient stock of minerals along with a small squad of Marines to observe the possible attack routes that the Zerg may use to invade the base.

The Vultures were helpful by putting Spider Mines along both of the chokepoints. Noticing the inefficiency of the Vultures being unable to restock the mines, Sweetie introduced to the Magistrate the idea to have the Factories manufacture a stockpile of Spider Mines and distribute them to Vultures that revisit the building after laying what they had.

It wasn’t long before small attack waves of Zerg began appearing. The Marine-filled Bunkers quickly eliminated the first wave. The colonial forces worked quickly to fortify the defensive positions. A few more Marines joined Sweetie on the rooftop. Although the colony had access to missile turrets to deter any potential attacks from flyers, the rooftop was not sturdy enough to build them without risking the structure collapsing.

Sweetie’s concerns were soon realized as the base came under attack by what appeared to be a segmented worm with leathery wings.

As an act of trust from the Sons of Korhal, the Magistrate received some data on the Zerg. The small Zerg that were encountered first were known as Zerglings while the snake-tailed ones were called Hydralisks. The new flying Zerg were called Mutalisks.

The Mutalisks launched what looked like a small creature that landed explosively on one target and bounced to other nearby targets at most twice before the creature was completely destroyed from the impacts.

Concentrated fire from the sheltered Marines and Missile Turrets made quick work of the flying horrors.

In order to relieve pressure on the evacuation zone, the Magistrate sent his own attack groups against the Zerg composed of a combination of Marines, Firebats, and Vultures. Sweetie was asked to stay in the facility because she was still lacking in armor; an issue that was beginning to annoy Sweetie.

Reports from the attack groups tell of a greater variety of living Zerg structures than the one type encountered near Backwater Station. One type of structure defended itself by extending a tentacle and sticking it into the ground where the attackers, nearly and unfortunately, were impaled on the endpoint of the tentacle. When the attackers finally killed the structure, they noticed that the living ground underneath their feet was slowly dying. “Could there be a relation between the structure I saw before and this new one?” Sweetie thought.

The attackers soon came upon what appeared to be a Zerg base with a number of different structures. One looked like a webbed hand with tubes coming out of it. One looked like a living water tower. Another building looked like a pool with green ooze in it. Another building appeared in their sights that looked important. This one looked like a large circus tent and there were what appeared to be worms with thick shells wandering near the structure. There also appeared to be Zerg that had small arms and webbed legs that appeared to be made for hovering instead of flying. These Zerg must be worker types since they appeared to be gathering from a nearby mineral field and what they assumed to be their variation of a refinery on top of a Vespene Geyser. One last Zerg type the group noticed looked like massive, floating creatures that did nothing even when one spotted them.

The group was soon beset upon by a large number of Zerglings, Hydralisks and Mutalisks.

The adjutant suddenly gave a message across the colonists who could pick up on the signal. “Ten minutes until dropship arrival” she said.

The message pulled Sweetie away from her thoughts. She was surprised that the Zerg attacks haven’t intensified yet. Maybe the raiding parties were crippling the Zerg offensive…

...Or maybe they are planning something intense very soon.

“Five minutes until dropship arrival.”

The Magistrate decided to stop sending attack parties and instead focused on bringing in as much militia as he could to hold out until the Sons of Korhal arrived.

The attacks have slowed as a result of the efforts of the raiding party. They reported to have destroyed the important Zerg structure and killed off all of the Drones that they saw before their radios went out.

A few minutes later, Sweetie’s suspicions were confirmed once more as countless numbers of Zerglings and Hydralisks burst out of the ground and headed straight for the evacuation zone. The last couple of minutes were some of the most intense moments that she had ever experienced. At some point she had to take shelter in a bunker because the base was slowly becoming overwhelmed.

Thankfully, the situation turned around when a massive ship appeared above the evacuation zone and started bombarding the near helpless Zerg with its weaponry. The large ship, which one of the Marines next to Sweetie called a Battlecruiser, was flanked by a number of Dropships.

Sweetie breathed a sigh of relief as the rebel organization came through on their offer.

She was finally going to get off Mar Sara and begin her search for Lyra.

Rebel: Jacobs Installation

“Executor, we are approaching Mar Sara,” said one of the crew members of the Gantrithor.

Tassadar sat in his chair in silence. Sure, he had eliminated countless Zerg by purifying Chau Sara, but he had also wiped out countless innocent Terran lives.

Lyra was not taking the earlier spectacle well either. It was one thing to kill a bunch of predatory beasts, it was another to indiscriminately burn an entire planet with photon energy.

Tassadar was silent for a few more moments when he looked toward the crew member. “Prepare to exit warp and position the fleet in high orbit above the planet.”

Lyra winced at the thought of the process repeating itself. She looked at Tassadar with a pleading look “Do we really have to do that again? I’m still reeling from the last time the fleet did that.”

“We have our orders, Lyra. Though, frankly, I don’t like this as much any more than you. I will try to delay the purification long enough to observe the situation on the planet. That is all that I can assure you.”

Lyra nodded solemnly, knowing that this was the best of this situation that she was going to get.

Sweetie led a daring raid on the prison ship Merrimack, that was holding orbit above Mar Sara, alongside a news reporter that was stationed at Backwater Station, Michael Liberty. Thankfully, the ship was running with a skeleton crew so the security was extremely lax.

Michael can be described as a man of normal height and proportions, if a little lanky. He has dirty blond hair that is spattered with lighter striations of gray which is swept back in a ponytail to cover a bald spot.

Knowing that the law was not on their side, Sweetie couldn’t afford to care about the lives of her enemies. Any Confederate marines that were brave enough to stand against them ended up with their face blown up from a blast of her C-10 MK I.

The group soon found Raynor’s cell and a nearby guard who the group hoped had the code to the cell. Although, the guard was tight lipped, his mind wasn’t. Sweetie telepathically obtained the code from the unsuspecting guard. Typing in the code, the door opened and Raynor walked out of his cell.

Raynor looked the cream colored mare. “Thanks for rescue, Sweetie.” He rolled his head to work out the kinks in his neck. “Glad they took their sweet time decidin’ when I was gonna be interrogated.”

Sweetie smiled. She overheard Michael speaking over the comms that they have secured Jim Raynor.

Raynor looked at the man and remembered something. “Hey, I remember you.” He chuckled. “Rescued you from Backwater Station, right?”

Michael was glad that Raynor remembered him from their brief encounter. With that, he led the group back to the docking tubes that was bridging the Merrimack with the Cormorant, a repurposed merchantman vessel designed for trading, now for use by the Sons of Korhal. Once the group was aboard the merchantman, the docking tubes withdrawn, the vessel moved toward and docked with the Hyperion, the Battlecruiser that protected the colonists and Dropships during the evacuation.

During transit, Sweetie and Raynor had the pleasure of meeting an idealistic young man by the name of Matt Horner who served as an officer aboard the Cormorant. Raynor spent the time telling stories about his past and Horner quickly began to admire the Marshal’s bravery and loyalty to his old crew.

Arriving on the Hyperion’s bridge, Raynor and Sweetie finally met Mengsk in person.

It didn’t take much for Mengsk to convince Raynor to join the Sons of Korhal since they now have a common enemy in the Confederacy.

Horner approached Sweetie and started a conversation with her. “So what’s your story? How did you and Raynor meet?”

Sweetie told Horner her story about how she and her marefriend were displaced from their world in a way that didn’t imply magic because no one in this part of the universe believed that magic existed. She told him about appearing on some world with a number of strange glowing crystals around her and how she was kidnapped by the Kel-Morian Combine and made her escape when they landed on Mar Sara. One bar fight later and she and Raynor became friends. She also told him that she somehow gained the power to read minds.

Horner was taken by surprise by that last part. “You gained these powers recently? You didn’t have them before you were displaced?”

Sweetie shook her head. “I only found out about these powers when one of my Kel-Morian captors thought of the passcode to my cell.”

Horner hummed and placed a hand on his chin. “I have heard of a substance that, in theory, awakens psionic abilities in people. I think they call the stuff Jorium. They say that it’s a key component in the training of a Ghost. You may have ended up in a field of Jorium long enough for the effects to take hold.”

“What is a Ghost?” Sweetie asked.

“Ghosts are specialist soldiers that specialize in covert operations. They are often used for infiltration, sabotage, assassinations and sometimes guiding local WMDs like tactical nuclear warheads. They are standard equipped with C-10 rifles like the one you have. Although, when I saw it, it looked like you were using an old model. It doesn’t have the laser targeting system needed to guide nukes,” Horner explained.

Although she was not particularly attached to her weapon, Sweetie was unsure if she wanted the ability to unleash such a dangerous weapon. However, the idea of Ghosts did have its appeal. Her secret agent training could be used effectively if she were equipped as one.

Mengsk walked up to Horner and Sweetie and asked her a question. “Pardon me, did I hear correctly that you have psionic abilities?”

Sweetie looked at him warily. “Yes…?” she responded slowly.

Mengsk looked her over, sizing her up. “I’d like to equip you in the standard Ghost gear that we have. In exchange, I need you and Raynor to run an errand for me planetside.”

“What do you need us to do?” Raynor asked.

“Right now, Mar Sara is almost completely overrun by the Zerg. The Confederates are abandoning the planet, and so are we. However, there is something I’d like to do before we leave. I want you two to raid this colony’s Confederate outpost and retrieve whatever design or weapon schematics that you can find in their networks.With the chaos of the Confederates’ evacuation, you two shouldn’t have any trouble getting in or out of their installation. You’ll have to be quick about it though. Reports are showing Protoss activity nearby. No doubt this is intended to be a repeat of Chau Sara so time is short.”

“I’m up for it,” said Raynor “How ‘bout you Sweetie?”

“Alright, let’s get changed and get down there.” Sweetie said.

Getting down to the planet was not a problem for the duo who were leading a small group into the installation.

Sweetie was wearing a hostile environment suit that was form-fitting and offered a decent degree of protection with state of the art armor. The technology in her suit would allow her to cloak herself to be intangible to the naked eye. The design was even customized to fit her hooves. Despite her protests, Raynor and Horner convinced her to use the more combat effective C-10 MK V rifle that today’s Ghosts use.

Raynor was wearing a black version of the CMC suit. The suit offered far more protection for him than the average CMC suit. His C-14 rifle was also customized to be more effective.

The group entered the installation without any problem. To her left, Sweetie noticed a couple of Confederate scientists hiding. She decided to ignore them. Part of the wall to her right opened up to reveal a rocket launcher targeting the group, who quickly reacted by opening fire on the defense and obliterating it.

The next part was a fork in the path: Two corridors and two unlocked doors that appear to lead into the same room. Peering inside, Sweetie found a mechanical walker armed with autocannons. Raynor told her that it was called a Goliath. The group checked the right corridor first.

The end of the path led to a stairwell to the upper floor where they found a teleporter, which surprised Sweetie as she never imagined technology that could imitate a unicorn’s teleport spell. Stepping on the teleport pad, the group ends up in an isolated room with no doors.

The one Confederate Marine in the room was brave enough to engage the group only to get mowed down in a hail of bullets and explosive shots. The Firebats in the group didn’t even get a chance to use their flamethrowers.

Sweetie walked up to a console and activated the security cameras to find their objective and a few other points of interest. She studied the images and committed them to memory before the group went back to the teleporter and returned to the fork.

The left path offered little to no resistance. There were a few civilians and SCVs around but everyone ignored them and continued along the path.

Going upstairs and through a door, the group found another fork in the path. Sweetie suspected the right path would lead them to that moderately defended area with the Goliath.

Sweetie’s ears perked as she heard the sound of heavy metal on a metal floor, too heavy for any marine. The sound was getting louder and it was coming from the right path. The group soon saw a Goliath heading right for them, its autocannons warming up as it approached.

The group took cover behind the door they came from and prepared for a fight against the mechanical construct. Sweetie took a moment to think and decided that this would be a good time to try out the lockdown missiles. She loaded a shell into her rifle and pointed it in the direction of the door.

As the Goliath appeared in the doorway, Sweetie pulled the trigger and launched the missile. The effect was instant as the Goliath’s systems were completely locked up and the machine rendered helpless. The group opened fire and blew the machine apart.

Ignoring the right path, the group proceeded down the other path where they found another fork: One forward, one to the left and a door to the right. They decided to check the room and found more civilians who cowered in a corner and glared at the group. Sweetie walked up to the console and found an option to deactivate an automated defense system somewhere in the installation.

Exploring a corridor to the left, the most resistance they encountered were a couple of Confederate Firebats. There were two locked doors and a terminal at in the middle of a room. Curious, Sweetie unlocked the doors. To everyone’s but Sweetie’s horror, a small group of Zerglings exited one of the cells. The group quickly dispatched the creatures.

Raynor sighed. “Looks like your hunch may have been right, Sweetie.”

Mengsk spoke up over the comms. <“I saw Zerg within Confederate holding pens over a year ago. They appear to have known about the creatures for some time. For all we know, they could be breeding the things. However, that matter will have to wait another day. We need that data and we need it soon. There is no telling when the Protoss are going to begin their attack.”>

“Executor, our scans have indicated a small number of Terrans still on the planet... there is also an unusual biometric signature on the surface. The signature bears a similarity to Lyra’s,” the crew member reported.

Lyra’s ears perked at hearing the report. “Bon Bon?” she asked.

“It’s likely, unless there are more than the two of you in the sector,” he said.

Tassadar was glad to see Lyra’s mood lifted at the thought that her friend may have been located.

In an attempt to buy time for Lyra’s friend to evacuate, Tassadar ordered the fleet to delay their attack on the planet.

Moving down the remaining corridor, the Raynor and Sweetie’s group encounter a few civilians who seemed confused about something. Ignoring the confused civilians, the group came to a pit area that had a couple of vultures revved up and ready to engage them. The bikers were quickly eliminated as was the nearby wall-mounted missile turret.

The next room had another teleporter that had a little protection in the form of a couple of Marines and a floor-mounted autogun turret. The group activated the teleporter and they appeared near their destination.

Suddenly, a Confederate adjutant issued an alert on their intrusion and activated any available automated defenses while sending a few Marines their way. The only other defenses the corridor had was a floor-mounted missile turret that was quickly destroyed.

The next room they entered contained their objective. They were to be greeted by more Marines and a Confederate Ghost.

Trying something clever, Sweetie activated her cloaking field. She quickly noticed that the cloaking effect was slowly draining her energy reserves. Acting quickly, Sweetie blasted the welcoming party, who were confused as to who was shooting at them.

The rest of the group rushed inside and dealt with the last of the defenses the installation had to offer.

Sweetie walked up to the last terminal and started downloading any data she could find onto a series of discs contained in a small box. Raynor reported that the files have been downloaded and would be expecting evac once they got out of the building.

It didn’t take them long to reach the installation entrance since there was a clear path. The group entered the Dropship, handed the discs to Mengsk who was aboard the Dropship, and returned to the Hyperion.

“Executor, there are no more non-Zerg bio signatures on the planet. The signature that we have identified as ‘Bon Bon’ is on a nearby Terran capital ship” the crew member reported.

Tassadar closed his eyes for a moment, glad he would not have to give Lyra bad news before preparing himself with grim determination as he ordered the bombardment to begin.

Once again, the spectacle was both beautiful and horrifying as the planet was exposed to intense photon energy.

All life on the planet was extinguished.

A few minutes later, the Terran ship that carried Bon Bon warped away from the Mar Sara system.

Rebel: Antigan Revolution

Sweetie Drops was visibly stunned by the actions of the Protoss that she observed moments before the Hyperion performed a warp jump into another part of the sector. She had just witnessed a fleet of Protoss ships open fire on the entire surface of Mar Sara, incinerating all life on the surface and possibly a few meters below it. Such a display shows just how dangerous these alien races really are.

The door to the bridge opened and Mengsk and Raynor entered.

“Ah, there’s the horse I wanted to see,” Mengsk said.

Sweetie glared at him. “I am a pony, Arcturus” she said with a hint of venom. “The term ‘horse’ is a racial slur among my kind.”

Mengsk detected the venom in her voice and switched to a political facade. “My apologies for the insult to your kind. It was not my intent to gain your hostility.

Sweetie recognized his speech pattern from her time observing Princess Celestia. Knowing she had nothing to gain by losing her temper, she decided to drop the matter. She sighed. “What do you want?”

“We are currently on course for the fringe world Antiga Prime, a fringe colony where my second in command is currently stirring up anti-Confederate sentiment,” Mengsk said. “If she has been successful, we should have a new base of operations soon. As a test of your skills, Sweetie, I want you and Captain Raynor to work with her and secure the Antigans’ support.”

Raynor and Sweetie were given the ranks of Captain and Lieutenant, respectively, and given command of their own squadron that was named ‘Raynor’s Rangers’ which consisted mostly of members of the former colonial militia of Mar Sara. Sweetie didn’t really care about what name they would use.

Raynor and Sweetie acknowledged his request and prepared for the meeting that would take place once the Hyperion reached Antiga Prime.

On the bridge of the Hyperion, the mission table, a device that displays locations, objectives, and other useful information using holograms, was surrounded by most of the key individuals for the mission, with one other, a red haired woman with green eyes, displayed on a nearby monitor. The others included Sweetie, Raynor, Mengsk and the former Magistrate of Mar Sara, now given the title of Commander.

Raynor addressed the Commander and told him about the data discs being decoded and his hopes of something useful coming from that venture into that Confederate installation. The Commander, until now, had been in his cabin recovering from his ordeal with Mar Sara.
“You two have done well,” said Mengsk, referring to Sweetie and Raynor. “I believe our efforts have weakened the Confederacy’s grip on the fringe worlds, but our work out here isn’t done yet.” He turned to the person on the monitor. “Lieutenant Kerrigan, would you please explain the situation?”

“I’ll get straight to the point,” said Kerrigan. “Our sources tell us that Antiga is ready to revolt against the Confederacy, but the Confederates seem to be aware of this as well. A detachment of Alpha Squadron troops under the command of General Duke are stationed near my position and are keeping the colony contained.”

“Sweetie and Raynor,” began Mengsk. “You will meet up with Kerrigan and assist her in dealing with Duke’s officers. Use the resources the colony can provide and deal with the rest of the Confederates in the area. A Dropship has been prepared for you two. The pilot will drop you off near Lieutenant Kerrigan’s position.” With that, Mengsk ended the briefing and retreated to his quarters.

Sweetie looked at Raynor and narrowed her eyes, to Raynor’s confusion. “Jim,” she began. “I am telling you this as a friend. Try your best to keep your perverted thoughts to yourself. I know that you have been thinking those thoughts around the female officers. While I don’t mind, since my people tend to be more open-minded about sex than humans. I’m sure Kerrigan is a mind reader like me and she will likely pick up on those thoughts. So, keep it professional while we’re in the field.”

Raynor blinked. “Uhh...I’ll keep that in mind.”

With that, the duo headed to the launch bay and boarded the Dropship that would take them to the surface. Raynor was glad to see the crew had saved his bike during the evacuation and was loaded up and secured on the Dropship.

The transport launched from the Hyperion and made the short trip to the surface of Antiga and the objective point.

Sweetie and Raynor, with his vulture, disembarked from the Dropship with a squad of Marines into a small canyon. The group followed the path out of the canyon and quickly arrived at the rendezvous point where Kerrigan was waiting.

“Captain Raynor, I’ve finished scouting out the area and-” Kerrigan began. She stopped when she picked up on Raynor’s thoughts. “You pig!”

Raynor sighed as he lowered his head in shame. He knew that Sweetie was behind him rolling her eyes in a way that said ‘I told you so.’ She was probably laughing her ass off on the inside too. “Let’s just get this mission going…” he said and drove a short distance ahead of the girls.

Sweetie could feel anguish and torment coming from Kerrigan, as if she had lived a terrible life. She decided to wait until later to ask her about that...if she was willing.

Sweetie and Kerrigan walked beside each other, following Raynor. “What’s with him?” Kerrigan asked.

“I warned him to avoid thinking perverted thoughts because I figured you use telepathy. I was right and now I get the right to rub it in his face if I so wish.”

Kerrigan giggled. The two enjoyed a short conversation until they crossed a bridge and noticed a number of Confederate Missile Turrets guarded by one Marine.

The group quickly eliminated the Marine then turned their attention to the turrets. “I hate these things,” Kerrigan said. “They can sense me even when I’m cloaked. We should take these out.” As they blasted the turrets, Sweetie decided to research the types of enemies that can detect her presence when cloaked later.

The road ahead was guarded by a lone Wraith fighter. To avoid the risk of the Wraith using its cloaking capabilities, Sweetie activated her cloaking then approached the fighter and launched a lockdown missile at it. She, Kerrigan and the Marines quickly shot it out of the air. With the area clear of enemies, Sweetie decloaked.

“Nice move Sweetie. Which facility trained you?” Kerrigan asked.

“None. I was never put into the Ghost program” Sweetie responded. “I was trained on my home planet as a secret agent to protect my nation.”

Kerrigan hummed before focusing on the mission. Ahead was a Bunker currently in use by the Confederates with a Missile Turret next to it.

There was no room for subtlety in this case so the group blew up the bunker and the soldiers within before tearing down the turret.

With the way clear, Kerrigan snuck past the remaining Confederate defenses and proceeded into the Antigan Command Center where the oppressive Confederate officer was shot in the head.

Kerrigan escorted the hostages out of the command center where a few boarded the few SCVs they had. With the colonial leaders rescued, the rest of the Antigan militia opened fire on the Confederate defenders who were snuck past by Kerrigan. The Confederates and their Bunkers were quickly annihilated in a pincer move by the Antigans and Raynor’s and Sweetie’s group.

The Commander assumed command of the Antigan forces and quickly prepared them to ward off Confederate attack groups that were sure to come in response to what happened. Assessing what the base had, he found a Starport that had the facilities to manufacture Wraith fighters and the means to expand production by adding a Control Tower.

His adjutant picked up on a Confederate strike force on the other side of the lake and no way to reach them on foot. Thankfully, the Starport also had the facilities to manufacture Dropships to ferry troops across the lake.

The Commander had the colonists equipped as Marines and Firebats while ordering the Starport to manufacture Wraiths and Dropships.

Kerrigan, Raynor and Sweetie boarded one of the Dropships along with a sizeable force to deal with the Confederates with Wraiths to act as escorts for the Dropships.

The Dropships unloaded their cargo in one of the least defended parts of the base which had the only Vespene Geyser on the island. The army quickly secured the enemy’s resource expansion and pushed against the Alpha Squadron base.

The base was quickly overwhelmed by the army and the strike force forced to retreat. The Antigans celebrated their victory and thanked their saviors for freeing them from the oppressive grip of the Confederacy.

Their victory was short lived as the Antigans shared their reports with Sweetie, Kerrigan and Raynor. The reports indicated that the Zerg are appearing on this world in large numbers and the Confederates were getting caught in their rampage.

Sweetie’s gut feeling told her that things were going to start spiraling downhill soon.

Rebel: Saving General Duke

The Antigan Magistrate eagerly awaited the saviors of his colony from the colonial Starport. While receiving a group of wanted criminals could be seen with mixed opinions by the colonists, the majority of the population appeared to be cheering for the rebel group. The Confederates had sent their best squadron to keep the population under control, and the colony responded with outrage. There was no turning back now, even if the Sons of Korhal were driven away, the colony has been branded as sympathizers of rebels. And so, the Antigan Magistrate nervously awaited the arrival of the rebel leader.

His patience was soon rewarded with the arrival of a customized Battlecruiser docking with the colonial starport. The docking gate in front of him soon opened to reveal the rebel leader and two bodyguards in standard CMC suits.

The rebel leader greeted him in a friendly, yet politically distant manner. The two made the long walk to the Magistrate’s office to discuss terms with the colonial militia for allowing the Sons of Korhal into their colony.

Sweetie, Raynor and Kerrigan were looking around the Antigan colony, taking in the sights. Being on a different world with an environment that was not a barren wasteland has also allowed the stores to sell familiar wares at better or worse prices as well as products that were not sold on Mar Sara. Since they had some credits on them, the trio bought some souvenirs from the stores.

Raynor was checking out the armory to see if they had anything he might like. While he was doing that, Kerrigan approached Sweetie to have a conversation with her. “I’ve been meaning to ask, I can sense some deep-seated hatred in you. Can I ask where those feelings come from?”

“I could ask you the same thing” Sweetie replied. “There is a lot of pain and anguish in your memories as well as some heavy guilt. This isn’t the place to discuss such things though. Perhaps we can exchange stories in private somewhere.”

Kerrigan blinked. She knew that she probably left her mind open when she first met Sweetie and closed her mind when she realized the Pony had psychic abilities, since the hostile environment suit enhances psionic power generated by psychics. It was an easy mistake to make since not all who wear the suit are psychics, even though those who aren’t wouldn’t be able to use the suit to its full potential.

The strange thing is that Kerrigan can still sense Sweetie’s emotions. “How come you’re not closing your mind? A lot of enemy Ghosts can take advantage of an open mind.” Kerrigan said.

“Actually, I only awakened to these powers recently. There was no Ghost training facility on Mar Sara, though I wouldn’t go there anyway even if there were one since I’ve heard what they do to the recruits and I would rather keep my head free of implants,” Sweetie said.

Sweetie’s words triggered an unpleasant memory in Kerrigan, one that she quickly suppressed. Sweetie picked up on memory for a split second before Kerrigan reestablished her psychic block.

Kerrigan shook her head “Sorry about that” she said, knowing that Sweetie likely felt that memory. “I can teach you the necessary mind tricks ghosts should know in case you find yourself fighting against one alone.”

Sweetie smiled. “I would like that.”

The next few hours were spent shopping at the local stores. Raynor bought a crate of weapons that he planned to use to decorate his quarters and to use in the future if he intends to do so. Raynor’s and Kerrigan’s eyes went wide when they saw Sweetie lift the heavy arms crate. While Raynor could have lifted the crate if he was wearing his suit and Kerrigan could not have lifted that crate even with the physical enhancements offered by her suit. This was another thing that the captain and lieutenant would have to ask the strong Pony later.

As the trio neared the starport, their comms started beeping. Mengsk was summoning them to the Hyperion bridge for another mission. The trio made their way to the bridge, with Sweetie dropping off the crate in Raynor’s room along the way, earning the earth pony a number of wide-eyed stares from the crew and passers by.

Mengsk and the Commander awaited the trio by the holographic mission table. Sweetie’s gut feeling told her that they were about to do something they weren’t gonna like.

“According to the reports,” Mengsk began. “The Confederates are in a state of panic over the Antigans revolting against them. The Commander’s adjutant has intercepted a number of encrypted transmissions going back and forth between their outposts and their headquarters on Tarsonis. However, one transmission has piqued my interest.” The Commander ordered his adjutant to play the transmission.

<“This is General Duke calling from Alpha Squadron flagship Norad II! We’ve crash-landed and are being hit hard by the Zerg! Request immediate backup from anyone receiving this signal! Repeat, this is a priority one distress call-”>

Raynor was visibly amused that the General, who had been nothing but be an asshole to him and his friends, was finally forced to fight the creatures that his superiors have used against a number of fringe worlds.

The next words that came out of Mengsk’s mouth was met with a few surprised looks and expressions of outrage.

“Jim, Sweetie, I want you two to move in and save that base.”

“Are you serious!?” said Sweetie.

“I’m positive I didn’t hear that right,” said Raynor.

“Arcturus, have you lost your mind?” said Kerrigan.

Mengsk continued. “We cannot let our personal prejudice cloud our judgement and blind us from what we must do. Our priority is saving humanity from the Zerg and part of my plans involve bringing General Duke to our side.”

“I don’t like this at all,” said Kerrigan.

“I’m not asking you to like it, I’m asking you to do it,” Mengsk said, commandingly.

Raynor and Sweetie rolled their eyes and left the bridge to board the transport to their next destination.

Arriving with a small squad of marines and firebats, Raynor and Sweetie begin the short walk to the nearby Alpha Squadron base to find it under attack by a few Zerg. The group helped deal with the attackers before the base defenders started pointing their guns at Raynor and Sweetie.

“Why are you here?” one of the Marines asked.

“We’re here to save the sorry ass of your General. As for why, take it up with Arcturus,” Raynor retorted.

Since the base had been cut off from any actual leadership and their leader was in danger, the base personnel reluctantly started following Raynor’s orders.

Sweetie quickly noticed the familiar piece of tech that she saw at the Jacobs Installation, a Goliath, was patrolling around the base looking for more Zerg intruders.

The base staff informed her that they have the building schematics for an armory, which has the equipment necessary to expand the factory’s building capabilities to construct more Goliaths. The armory, according to the staff, will also provide improved versions of the weapons and armor plating equipped onto the mechanical ordinances and ships.

Looking around the base, Sweetie found that the location was on a wide plain which puts them at a disadvantage because their position allows the Zerg to attack them from any direction.

Another disadvantage, she found was that they were pressed for time. The fallen battlecruiser, Norad II, was completely surrounded and were getting hit by small attack waves of Zerg. It was only a matter of time until their defenses were breached. The crash survivors would need a few Dropships to fully extract Duke and the crew.

While the base’s defense demands were being met, Raynor started laying spider mines at the weakest points of the base defense. At the same time a rescue party was being put together to rescue the beleaguered General.

Sweetie was sure that the enemy was not stupid enough to simply allow the direct route: fly transports straight to Duke. To make sure of this, she headed into the Command Center and requested scans of the cliffs around Norad II using a Comsat Station.

The reports confirmed her suspicions as the area was surrounded by tall, bulbous Zerg structures that the Zerg database have named Spore Colonies. These structures were designed to exclusively bombard ships with dense spores. The scans also indicate Hydralisks, Mutalisks and a new type that she has not encountered yet.

The new type was about the size of a zergling but it was in the form similar to a bat. The Zerg database has classified it as a Scourge. The creature attacks by ramming itself into ships and detonating itself with some sort of high yield bio-explosive. The blasts were so strong that it only took a few of them to take down a Battlecruiser.

Observing the scanned area, Sweetie discovered a small gap in the air defenses on the plateau. She figured that a sizeable force landing there could create an opening to allow transports to get through.

Raynor walked in on Sweetie while she was putting together her plan. “You look like you got a plan.” Sweetie smirked.

“Yep, look here,” Sweetie began. She pointed to a small area on the plateau that was just outside the range of the spore colonies. “If we land a sizeable force at this point, they should be able to create an opening to bring Dropships to the crash site.”

Raynor gave a small smile. “Clever.” His smile soon turned into a grimace. “If we’re doing this we better hurry, that ship won’t last long against those Zerg.”

Raynor and Sweetie boarded one of the Dropships which were carrying a large number of Marines and Firebats as well as a few Goliaths. The dropships easily made their delivery to the point that Sweetie designated. Once the ships left, the large force engaged the Zerg forces around them. They were met with moderate resistance from Zerglings, Hydralisks and Mutalisks as well as a few Sunken Colonies. The Goliaths’ missiles made quick work of the Mutalisks and any Scourge in the area while Marines and Firebats tore into the ground forces and the Spore Colonies.

Soon, a wide path was cleared for dropships to freely access the fallen Battlecruiser’s position. Sweetie and Raynor once again boarded a Dropship and landed next to the Battlecruiser.

The duo saw another Dropship arrive at the location. Upon landing, the ship opened its main door to reveal Mengsk who approached the Battlecruiser as General Duke emerged from the wreckage and approached the three.

Duke was the first to speak. “You’re about the last folks I expected to show up. What’s your angle here Mengsk?”

Raynor was visibly outraged about Duke’s ingratitude but Sweetie put a hand on his shoulder and shook her head, indicating that this was hardly the time or the place to be cursing people out.

Sweetie was barely containing her own anger toward the agent of the tyrannical empire. Only her curiosity in Mengsk’s plan for the General was keeping her from testing the capabilities of her suit on Duke’s face.

Assuming his political facade, Mengsk began to speak. “The Confederacy is falling apart, Duke. Its colonies are in open revolt. The Zerg are rampaging unchecked. What would have happened here today if we hadn’t shown up?”

Seeing his superiors’ worst enemy face to face was not doing any favors for Duke’s patience. “Your point?” he asked, unable to hide his frustration.

“I’m offering you a choice. You can return to the Confederacy and ultimately lose the war, or join us and save humanity from the Zerg.”

“Keep this in mind,” Mengsk continued. “If the Confederacy actually cared about keeping you around, they would have sent someone other than you to keep the fringe worlds under control. Your abilities are more valuable to me than to them. I am offering you a position in my cabinet once we have cast away the old, outdated laws of the Confederacy. They would have you put in charge of backwater planets like Mar Sara. I don’t think it’s a difficult decision.”

Duke considered his options. On the one hand, it’s true that his superiors have been uneasy lately and their decisions have been questionable. He may be a Confederate General, but they don’t treat him like one. On the other hand, what does Mengsk have to offer that would even ensure his superiors’ downfall? What makes him better than them? For the rebel leader to approach him like he has, he must have some sort of secret ace up his sleeve. Mengsk’s reputation has shown that his strategies were well calculated.

Duke looked at Mengsk once again. “Ah take it you have something big planned for you to try and convince me to join forces with you.”

Mengsk frowned which quickly became a scowl. “Don’t test my patience, Edmund.”

Duke sighed. He knew deep down that there was only one choice to make in this situation. “Alright Mengsk, ya gotta deal.”

Mengsk’s scowl quickly became a victorious smirk. “You made the right choice, General Duke.”

Watching this deal take place made Raynor sick to his stomach. Now they had to play nice with one of their enemies.

This was going to be a long revolution.

Rebel: The Trump Card

Having Duke around to help with Mengsk’s revolution was met with some mixed feelings between Raynor, Kerrigan and Sweetie. Duke would most assuredly be a powerful ally to the Sons of Korhal and his Alpha Squadron were some of the best the Confederacy had to throw at their enemies. He was also the one who caused a lot of grief for Raynor and Sweetie back on Mar Sara with his unreasonable arrest of the Marshal and standing militia in favor of the Zerg having an easy time invading the colony. For Kerrigan, anyone who did the dirty work of the Confederacy was an ally to the men who tormented her physically and mentally when she was a child.

Thankfully, Duke usually kept his distance from the trio unless he had to tell them something important.

Kerrigan kept her promise to help Sweetie learn some psychic abilities to help her in combat. The first thing Kerrigan taught her was how to block her own thoughts from others. They practiced this by sparring with one another.

The two were equally matched when it came to hand-to-hand combat. However, Kerrigan was winning more matches than her because she had been reading Sweetie’s thoughts and acting in reaction to those thoughts. It took some time, but Sweetie had finally closed her mind to Kerrigan’s mind reading ability. Once she did that, Sweetie began to gain the upper hand against the trained ghost.

Another ability that Kerrigan taught her was telekinesis. Using her mind, she made a small, round device hover in front of her face. Knowing each component of the device beforehand, she was also able to mentally disassemble it and quickly reassemble it.

What interested Sweetie about her ability was that she was able to do it without a horn like unicorns would. Her level of precision and control was also amazing. It took Sweetie some time to grasp the basics of telekinesis, but she was eventually able to perform well enough to equal an average unicorn.

Kerrigan also mentioned that she had more powerful abilities, but she couldn’t access them because of the conditioning that the Ghost Program implanted into her.

Sweetie soon began to notice the Sons of Korhal scientists and engineers making unusual movements and discussing the implications of some sort of device that they were building using the designs that were taken from a Confederate installation on Mar Sara. According to the scientists, Mengsk believes that he had found the key to taking down the Confederacy by using the devices and that they had something to do with the Zerg. Sweetie frowned at that. She was hoping that she was not putting the pieces of this puzzle together correctly because if she was...

Sweetie shuddered at the thought at such an abominable act.

“Hey Sweetie,” a voice called out to her. Sweetie turned around to look behind her to see Raynor greeting her. “It ain’t nice to eavesdrop on someone’s conversation,” he said. Sweetie gave a sad smile. “So, whatcha find out?”

Sweetie led Raynor to a nearby empty room and locked the door. Hoping to keep their conversation private. “I think Mengsk may have stumbled on something that may bring down the Confederacy,” she began.

“Really? That’s great! We can finally take down those assholes who use the Zerg to control everyone through fear,” Raynor said.

Sweetie sadly shook her head. “I wish it were that simple,” she continued. “Those scientists were talking about some sort of device that Mengsk plans to use against the Confederacy and, from what I heard, the device has something to do with the Zerg. I hope I’m wrong about this, I really do. If I’m right, though, he intends to weaponize the Zerg against the Confederacy.” Raynor’s eyes became like dinner plates. “I fear that he may be planning to commit genocide to wipe out the Confederacy.”

Raynor shuddered at the thought of Mengsk becoming a madman to take down a government. “I hope you’re wrong about this too, darlin’. Any idea why he would do something like that?”

Sweetie shook her head. “I’m not sure at this point, but I only have a guess. I need some time to figure what kind of person he is before I jump to any conclusions.”

As if on cue, Sweetie’s and Raynor’s communicators started beeping, summoning the duo to the war room in their command center.

On the way, the duo ran into General Duke, much to their dismay. “So, General,” Raynor said with the most politeness he could muster, which by his opinion of the General was not much. “...any idea what this meetin’ is about?”

Ignoring Raynor’s tone the General responded. “Well, it probably has to do with the Confederacy sendin’ Delta Squadron to take care of the job my boys abandoned. Since losin’ Antiga would be a heavy blow to ‘em, The Confederacy likely sent Delta to clean up the mess your people made. They probably have a strike force near our main base ready to deal with us.”

This was news to the duo. They had no idea the Confederates were so close to their current location.

Sweetie, Raynor and Duke enter the war room to find Mengsk and Kerrigan already in attendance. The trio took their positions around the table in the middle of the war room.

“I know you’re all concerned about the Confederate strike force, but first we have a grave matter to discuss. It seems our data discs didn’t contain weapon designs after all,” Mengsk said. He turned his head toward Kerrigan, motioning for her to continue.

“You all know about the Confederate Ghost Program,” Kerrigan began. “Those running it have found that the Zerg are attuned to the psychic emanations of Ghosts.”

“So the Zerg are here for you darlin’?” Raynor chuckles followed by a sarcastic remark, “This keeps gettin’ better and better.”

Kerrigan rolls her eyes and continues. “There’s been a lot of secret Confederate research surrounding Ghosts and the Zerg. What we found was a small but critical piece of the puzzle: designed for a Transplanar Psionic Waveform Emitter. They emit the neural imprint of a Ghost, but on a much larger scale. These things reach across worlds.”

Mengsk continued from there. “The Confederacy tested these emitters on fringe worlds such as Chau Sara and Mar Sara.” Sweetie’s and Raynor’s eyes became like dinner plates. “We have all been victims of some Confederate weapons test. Over a generation ago, The Confederacy used nuclear weapons to rid themselves of their rivals to establish dominance in the sector and they are using the Zerg to do the same, except in this case, they could use the Zerg to improve their image by making themselves look like heroes for coming in and destroying the Zerg. It’s time The Confederacy paid for its crimes.

“And I know just the way. Lieutenant Kerrigan will plant an emitter in the middle of the base camp of the Confederate strike force. Once it’s in place, we will make our escape. Now get moving.” With that, Mengsk left the war room with a trio of concerned officers.

Sweetie was the first to recover. “Does he understand what he wants us to do?”

Kerrigan walked into the middle of an outpost to the north of the main base. She noticed Michael Liberty entering an SCV. She also noticed the Psi Emitter next to the SCV. Once the SCV was fully activated, the unit picked up the psi emitter and approached Kerrigan. “She’s all ready to go,” Liberty said.

Kerrigan was filled with uncertainty to the ethicality of Mengsk’s plan. She opened her communicator to voice her concerns to the rebel leader, who dismissed them by implying that her past was clouding her judgement.

As they were talking, the outposts came under attack by the Confederate strike force. Kerrigan ordered the starport and science facility in the outpost to lift off and fly to the main base. The buildings engaged their main thrusters and retracted their landing gear, then made their way to the main base. Kerrigan and Liberty also retreated to the main base.
While this was happening, Sweetie ordered the base’s entry points to be protected by Bunkers filled with Marines and Missile Turrets to be installed near the Bunkers to keep watch for Wraiths.

Earlier, a tech specialist hacked into the strike force database and stole the schematics for Siege Tanks: tanks that can transform into artillery and can be used for quickly blasting away structures or defending the base from ground units. The schematics for the Science Vessel and the necessary Science Facility were also obtained. While without normal weaponry, the floating Science Vessel comes with a number of features. One being a defensive matrix to increase the protections on any unit. Another being a spray to infect others with a radioactive substance that will rot away internal organs. Yet another ability being to fire an electromagnetic missile that shorts out power generators and give psychics a painful headache completely drains their energy. Rumor has it that it can also short out Protoss shields.

Sweetie also ordered a few Siege Tanks to defend the base. Her defensive suggestions were working since any sniping siege tanks were blown apart by the defending siege tanks and cloaking wraiths were shot down by well-placed missile turrets.

Sweetie orders for the construction of a few Factories and expands them with Machine Shops. The Factories construct a number of Goliaths and Siege Tanks for her plan to create chaos in the middle of the Confederate base. She also orders a Science Vessel to follow behind the future attack group. Sweetie notices that the northeast bridge from their base has a route to the heart of the enemy base while also being the least defended.

With the group ready, Sweetie, Kerrigan and Liberty exit the base with the mechanical attack group. The Science Vessel revealed cloaked Wraiths while the Goliaths shot them down and the group mowed down any ground forces that tried to stop them.

Upon entering the base, the Siege Tanks transformed by planting their anchors into the ground and the double barrel atop the tank transforms into an artillery cannon. The tanks and Goliaths effectively draw the attention of a large number of Delta Squadron troops, including an imposing Battlecruiser patrolling the area. Sweetie locked down the Battlecruiser while Kerrigan and Liberty snuck past the chaos and arrived on a good place to plant the Psi Emitter.

With the emitter in place, the Ghosts and Liberty retreat to the main base to prepare for evacuation..

Kerrigan hoped to never have to pull a stunt like siccing the Zerg on others again.

Sweetie knew better than to harbor that hope.

Rebel: Biting the Bullet

The majority of the Sons of Korhal forces have withdrawn their forces to a safe distance from Antiga Prime. With the Psi Emitter broadcasting the Ghost-like signal to nearby worlds, the Zerg have begun appearing around the planet in much greater numbers. Raynor and Sweetie were both disturbed that they had to participate in unleashing the Zerg against not only the Confederates on Antiga, but also the colonists themselves.

The colony had begun to broadcast a distress beacon to once again seek help, except this time it is from the Zerg instead of the Confederates. There was also the fact that the Protoss have begun showing up nearby and were orbiting the planet and preparing to obliterate all lifeforms on the surface once again.

Raynor called for an emergency meeting to discuss trying to save the colonists. Once again, the Sons of Korhal leaders have gathered on the bridge of the Hyperion. Raynor began the meeting.

“This defensive crap just isn’t working!” he said, referring to keeping the colonists away from the Zerg while the colonists evacuate. “Look, I know it’s risky, but I think I know of a way to save the colonists and still buy time to get off world. If we attack the main Zerg Hive Cluster, they’ll have to recall their forces to protect the nerve center.”

Duke tried to dismiss Raynor’s plan as stupid and reckless and the two began to argue over Duke’s past actions as a Confederate General. Kerrigan and Mengsk broke the two up. “Your plan is a wild one Jim, but it’s worth a try.” Mengsk said. Kerrigan agreed with Mengsk’s assessment. Mengsk then addressed the Commander and gave him full authority of the operation. “Captain Raynor and General Duke will assist you. Lieutenant Drops, make sure these two get along.” Sweetie nodded.

Looking out to the stars, Lyra felt distant from those around her. She longed to see her marefriend Bon Bon again. She watched as the fleet was once again positioning themselves for another planetary bombardment. She was really not looking forward to seeing that yet again.

Observing the events from orbit, Lyra noticed the Terrans leaving the planet, much to her relief. Looking elsewhere, she saw a familiar ship holding orbit over the planet. The ship launched a smaller ship toward the surface. Lyra’s eyes widened. “Could it be…?” she thought hopefully.

Noticing her change in expression, Tassadar walked up to Lyra to address her concerns. “What do you see, young one?” he asked.

Lyra’s attention was drawn away from the ship and toward her mentor. She points at the Terran ship. “I remember that ship. It’s the one we saw shortly before Mar Sara was purified. I think Bon Bon might be on that ship. She might even be onboard that shuttle that departed for the planet’s surface.”

Tassadar put a hand on his chin. He had to make a decision about the upcoming purification. If Lyra’s friend was headed to the surface then he would need to do what was necessary to get her friend off the planet’s surface sooner. The fleet was not going to wait forever.

He knew what he was about to do would go against The Conclave’s orders, but he was not about to earn the ire of his protege because of orders. He ordered a number of ships from the fleet to accompany the Gantrithor to the planet’s surface. His orders were to assist the Terrans with their evacuation of the planet and burn down any Zerg Hive Clusters they encounter in the course of this endeavor.

Sweetie was not feeling confident about this mission. Preliminary data has shown some well developed Hive Clusters with a number of different Zerg strains that she has never seen until now. All they had for the time being was herself, Raynor on his vulture and Duke piloting a Siege Tank, as well as a few SCVs. The nearest mineral field was far from the nearest Vespene Geyser. They were in big trouble if they didn’t get a base camp set up and fast.

Their only saving grace was that they were the only ones on the island they were on and there was only one chokepoint for the enemy to approach...short of flyers and troops dropping on them from whatever they may call transports. Thankfully, the Zerg attacks have only been a few scouts so far.

The Commander’s time management skills shined through in this situation as he managed to get the base camp up and running with troops and mechs ready to go. Aerial defenses were up to par by Sweetie’s standards with a line of Missile Turrets to deter sneak attacks from the Zerg with a small group of marines in case the Zerg manage to unload a Zergling or two in their perimeter. The bridge was also fortified with Marine-filled Bunkers, Missile Turrets and a few Siege Tanks in Siege Mode.

A raiding party was formed of Marines, Firebats, and Goliaths as well as a few Siege Tanks. The group formed around Sweetie, Raynor and Duke and advanced upon the neighboring Zerg Hive Cluster. The Zerg base was overwhelmed by the impressive firepower while the Hive Cluster that was on a nearby island began transporting Zerglings and Hydralisks using those floating Zerg that Sweetie discovered were called Overlords with Mutalisks escorting them. Sweetie also became acquainted with a couple of new Zerg species that were incredibly troublesome.

One was a slow flying Zerg that looked broad and flat, almost crab-like, with no wings to show that it should even be able to fly could attack from afar outside of any missile turret’s range. Thankfully, the Commander thought ahead and had a squadron of Wraiths manufactured to counter them. The Guardians, as Sweetie discovered, were helpless against anything not on the ground as their attacks could not stay in the air long enough to hit anything in the sky.

The other troublesome Zerg specimen was a massive four-legged behemoth with what looked like razor-sharp curved blades and an extremely thick carapace. The Ultralisk was devastating to most things on the ground and took a lot of firepower to finally put one down.

The Zerg on the island continued to send reinforcements to the already ruined Hive Cluster for a few minutes before they finally relented. After that, the Commander decided to make use of the resources left behind by the Zerg. He soon began fortifying the new outpost with the usual defenses.

The raiding party soon moved forward again to where the Zerg were not as plentiful in the area ahead of them, though occasionally they do get attacked by a cunning Zerg that looked like it was mostly webbed wings with a sinuous head and numerous tentacles. Every now and then one is sent to harass the party by either launching a glob of sticky goo that slows down some troops, infects someone with some sort of parasite that doesn’t seem to do anything harmful to the host, or infects them with a creature that gestates quickly in the unfortunate victim and bursts out of their body, killing the host and leaving behind a pair of annoying Zerg that were not very effective in combat. Sweetie kept her guard up in case one of these ‘Queens’, as her database research had revealed, tried to pull such a lethal action on her.

The group arrived on a plateau near the island where their objective was: the Zerg Hive. Thankfully, the massive structure was within range of Duke’s siege cannon. Sweetie defended Duke while he burned down the Hive.

Upon the hive’s destruction, Duke’s sensors started going crazy, picking up a large amount of Zerg activity headed their way. Raynor asked how many there were in a passive-aggressive tone as he was still on bad terms with the General. Duke ignored Raynor’s tone and informed them that there were a lot of Zerg incoming, more than they could handle.

Just then the massive wave arrived with nearly every strain of Zerg that Sweetie had learned about so far. The area was almost blanketed by Zerg while Sweetie unloaded shot after shot into the seemingly endless wave. Despite all odds, however, the rebels managed to pull through and eliminate the Zerg wave. Sweetie was exhausted as she had to use every maneuver she knew just to survive that attack.

The Commander’s adjutant alerted everyone of a transmission it was receiving from the Protoss Expeditionary Force flagship Gantrithor and patched them through.

Raynor was also exhausted from the attack and was not in the mood for unpleasant surprises, but he listened in anyway.

“Terran Commander,” said the Protoss leader. “I am Tassadar, High Templar and Executor of the Protoss fleet. I come bearing no ill will towards you or your brethren. I have watched your struggle with the Zerg and stand ready to aid you in your struggle against them.”

Raynor was surprised by the Protoss leader’s generous act and couldn’t help but smile. “Wow...well, hell. The more the merrier” Raynor said.

“I commend your-” Tassadar said before he was shoved aside by another person who appeared to be of the same species as Sweetie. This one was colored aquamarine and had two colors in her hair: aquamarine and white. She also had a horn on her forehead.

“Bon Bon! Are you there?” the Pony girl asked. She then looked at the fallen Protoss commander and apologized profusely to him with an apologetic smile to go with it.

“Lyra?!” Sweetie said, her tone filled with joy and surprise. “What in Celestia’s name are you doing here?”

Raynor looked at Sweetie and raised an eyebrow. “You know her? Bon Bon? Wait, is she the marefriend that you’ve been talkin’ about?”

Sweetie let out a sigh. “Yes, she is, but we have more important matters to deal with right now.”

“She’s right,” Lyra said. “Tassadar is still under orders from his superiors to purify this planet and you guys have to get off the planet ASAP. We will help you guys deal with the Zerg but we will have to be fast. The rest of the fleet is getting impatient.”

The Commander agreed to allow the Protoss to assist with the operation and bolstered the ships that Tassadar provided, including his own ship, with the growing Wraith squadron that the starports were manufacturing. The small fleet then scoured the immediate area for Zerg and tore into their various structures and creatures and turned them into bloody shreds.

Soon the immediate area was cleared of Zerg, enough for the last of the colonists to safely get off world. With some breathing room at last, Sweetie opened a channel to the Protoss again. “Lyra, can you read me?”

“Yes Bon Bon,” Lyra responded. “It feels so good to hear your voice again.”

Sweetie smiled for a moment before her expression became serious again. “Listen Lyra, there are things that I need to do for these guys. Once this blows over, I’ll come find you. Until then, stay strong for me.”

Before Lyra could respond, Sweetie had ended the communication. Lyra sighed. There was so much that she wanted to tell her marefriend, but it seemed that fate would be putting that on hold.

Tassadar approached Lyra, still rubbing the sore spot where she pushed him. “Your strength has certainly improved thanks to your training.” If he held any ill will for the rude treatment, he did not show it. Tassadar sent soothing psionic waves to calm Lyra and let her know that he was not angry. “Do not worry, I am certain that you two will meet again.”

Lyra smiled at that. Even as the Terran ship left with Bon Bon aboard it or even the tragic purification of the planet could not bring down her good mood.

Author's Note

For those who don't know, this mission was one of two missions that were part of the original release of Starcraft. However, Blizzard Entertainment decided to pull those missions after the first distribution for some reason.

Rebel: The Attack on Tarsonis

Since the incident on Antiga Prime involving planting a Psi Emitter in the Confederate Delta Squadron base, Sweetie has grown increasingly distant from most of the Sons of Korhal members. While she still regularly talks with Raynor and trains with Kerrigan, she has opted to participate in less operations with the rebel organization. Because of this, Raynor and Kerrigan have had to work together more to pick up her slack.

In that time, Raynor has begun to develop feelings for the red-haired Ghost. While Kerrigan has been too busy being useful to Mengsk, likely out of guilt for what she did to Mengsk in the past, perhaps in time she will be able to answer the former Marshal’s feelings.

The time that Sweetie spent between missions has not been wasted. Given the fact that Mengsk was willing to weaponize the Zerg against a Confederate squadron, she figured that this may be his plan to remove the Confederate supremacy from the Koprulu sector. With how dangerous it was to use the Zerg in such a way and Mengsk’s recklessness, it wasn’t hard to imagine that the rebel leader was planning to wipe out a planet with the alien monstrosities. Sweetie has figured Mengsk as the megalomaniacal type who would stop at nothing to lead humanity as he saw fit...if his goal was ruling humanity.

There was no stopping Mengsk at this point, not when she would have to choose between letting the Confederacy continue their schemes of using aliens to control their subjects or letting Mengsk take over the colonies using the Confederates most powerful weapon against them. Sweetie was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Regardless of outcome, Sweetie began to plan for what comes after the upcoming tragedy. Using the database in her quarters, she studied the defenses of Tarsonis to see if there was anything she would need to deal with in order to secure her getaway once she openly declares her departure from the Sons of Korhal. She had already made her decision to get away from the madman once she got the chance. She knew that the rebels were planning to make their move against Tarsonis soon and she needed to be ready to make her move.

Sweetie has kept her own suspicions to herself, especially from Raynor and Kerrigan, because one might risk compromising her plan if he knew and the other was blinded by past guilt to see Mengsk for who he really was. She still planned to tell Raynor when the time was right though.

The Sons of Korhal were holding position a safe distance from the planetary defenses of Tarsonis, the capital world of the Confederacy. With his plan ready to go, Mengsk calls for a meeting before the attack begins, though he did briefly comment about Sweetie finally showing up to a meeting after her time of inactivity. Sweetie did not respond to that. Mengsk began the meeting by stating that the final strike against the Confederacy was close at hand then lets Duke brief everyone about the planetary defenses.

“I’ve defended Tarsonis in over thirty major battles so I know of its defenses inside and out,” Duke began. “There are three primary orbital platforms that serve as staging areas for the Confederate fleet. If we assault the central platform, we should cause enough of a ruckus to allow a small force to break through the planetary defenses.”

Raynor was actually impressed that Duke, who he never saw as someone who would consider a frontal assault, especially after what he said back on Antiga, would actually suggest such a simple plan.

Duke also pointed out that Omega and Delta Squadrons defended the central platform but bragged about his Alpha Squadron being superior to them, to which Raynor rolled his eyes.

Sweetie was not entirely focused on the meeting as her mind was considering the steps of her plans and whether or not Raynor will be a part of them or not. She wanted to involve Kerrigan, but she was also a risk factor in her plans and she didn’t want Mengsk finding out. Thanks to her mind being closed, Kerrigan was none the wiser.

Sweetie was ordered to accompany Duke to attack the central platform of the Confederate fleet, which she didn’t really mind. Since Mengsk wanted the matter deal with swiftly, Duke was to oversee the operation from his battlecruiser: the repaired Norad II that was salvaged after Duke was rescued. A number of prebuilt structures were sent with the General.

While Sweetie was planning before the operation, the Sons of Korhal infiltrated a Ghost academy and liberated the psychics that were not indoctrinated into the Confederacy yet. The rebels also confiscated a number of nuclear warheads for use in the operation against Tarsonis. Sweetie had reservations about using those weapons, especially the environmental damage that could occur from the radiation. Sweetie was forced to suck it up and make use of the nukes when necessary since she wasn’t about to let personal feelings get in the way of her survival.

The operation began when the rebels secured a small platform next to the main platform. There was little to no resistance as a small group consisting of Sweetie, another ghost and a few marines cleared their new staging area.

The scouting force was soon met with the imposing Norad II above them followed by a number of flying buildings. The transports that initially dropped them off on the platform returned and the rebels were in position to begin the main operation. Sweetie and the ground troops boarded the transports while leaving a single SCV behind for logistics.

As the ships entered the perimeter of the main platform, Duke took notice of some abandoned equipment that was lying around for their flying buildings to link up to. Duke commented about Omega and Delta Squadron’s lack of decorum by leaving equipment behind as sloppy.

Not looking a gift horse in the mouth, the buildings landed near their respective addons while the Dropships dropped off Sweetie and her squad. A Bunker and some additional Marines were built and trained respectively to defend the base until they were ready. A perimeter of Missile Turrets were built along potential attack angles to deter Wraiths and their cloaking technology. A few Siege Tanks were built to fortify the ground defenses.

Sweetie noticed that some of the confiscated Nuclear Missiles were being loaded into the addons that were attached to the Command Centers. As she was doing so, the Ghost that came with her on the mission walked up to her and asked if she knew how to paint targets for the Nuclear Missiles to hit. Sweetie shook her head and said that the term “painting targets” was new to her because her nation’s military science had not advanced far enough to justify using that term yet. The Ghost borrowed her rifle and showed her how to activate the laser targeting feature that sends a signal to one of the Nuclear Silos, the new addons to the Command Centers, to launch its tactical nuke at the “painted” location. She was also informed that she would need to keep still for a few seconds for the target to lock on. With a nod, Sweetie took back her rifle and slung it around her back.

Duke began a preliminary strike with the Wraiths that came with him and attacked an Omega Squadron starport some distance from the main base. At the same time, Duke ordered Sweetie and the ghost to Weaken the enemy’s front lines by aiming a well-placed nuke at some Bunkers. Sweetie sighed and activated her Cloaking and advanced on the Omega Squadron defenses.

Sweetie and the ghost positioned themselves near their respective targets. She activated the laser targeting feature of her rifle and aimed at a Missile Turret. Suddenly, alarms in her communicator went off, stating that Nuclear Missiles have been launched. She saw that the Confederate troops started behaving strangely, as if they were frantically looking around for something. “This seems like something I need ask that Ghost about, or maybe Kerrigan,” she thought. The enemy Marines and Siege Tanks in the area continued their desperate search for something for a few more seconds before the Ghost told her to run away through her communicator. Sweetie sprinted away from the area as two Nuclear Missiles were dropping into the area. The impact was followed by a massive explosion that killed every unprotected Marine and Siege Tank and annihilated the Bunkers and Missile Turrets in the area as well as leaving a mushroom cloud that vanished quickly.

Sweetie and the Ghost retreated to the base camp while a wave of SoK troops advanced on Omega Squadron. Since they had a breather, she deactivated her Cloaking and decided to ask the Ghost her question. “Why were the Confederates acting strangely when I started painting the target?”

The Ghost looked at her and responded. “Ever since Korhal IV was bombarded with nuclear weapons, every Command Center was equipped with a nuclear weapons detector. When the detector goes off it sends a signal to all units under the squadron’s command. For us, launching nukes is very risky as a Comsat Station may try to locate us or a Science Vessel may try to pick up on our location. If we are discovered, we will be in big trouble. Rumor has it that the Zerg and the Protoss have their own methods to tell when a nuke’s been launched.”

“Really?” Sweetie said incredulously. “With all of that advance warning, they could have just run out of the blast area like someone with common sense would instead of frantically looking for two cloaked Ghosts. They could have even tried to scan the area of the marked target with their Comsat Station to find us. Instead, they waste their final moments hopelessly searching for us.”

“To be fair...” the Ghost said. “...soldiers aren’t paid to think.”

Sweetie rolled their eyes and returned to the fray where the rebel forces were burning down Omega Squadron’s base. Their standing forces were overwhelmed by the sheer firepower the SoK brought to bear.

With the Omega Squadron wiped out, The Commander decided to set up a resource base to gather the minerals the fallen Confederates left behind. A defensive perimeter was established to protect the new base.

Sweetie each took her own initiative. She scouted out more of the platform and discovered a small outpost with a significant amount of resources that were not being harvested. Receiving notification that another Nuclear Missile had been loaded, she dropped the nuclear payload on the small outpost, wiping out most of the base. She followed up by calling in some troops to mop up the rest to prepare another resource base.

Duke went to work by taking down some of the anti-air defenses protecting the Delta Squadron Base. Norad II took some hits from some of the Missile Turrets while a couple were taken out from a distance by the ship’s powerful Yamato Gun.

At the same time, a squadron of Wraiths snuck around the defenses on the south part of the Delta base and attacked a starport to the north of the base. The Wraiths Engaged their Cloaking devices and attacked the Starport while drawing the attention of the nearby Battlecruisers that would have made a ground assault on their base more difficult. The squadron was detected when Delta Squadron used their Comsat Station to scan them which allowed the Battlecruisers to fire on them. However, there were too many Wraiths for the capital ships to handle effectively and ended up crashing onto the platform.

With the Delta base softened up, Duke ordered a ground assault on the base. When enemy Wraiths engaged their Cloaking before defending their base, a Comsat scan was ordered to reveal the cloaked fighters and were shot down.

With Delta Squadron dealt with, the SoK send a small force of Wraiths and attacked some of the orbital defenses and platforms to begin Mengsk’s endgame plan for the Confederacy.

Meanwhile, Raynor and Kerrigan landed on the planet’s surface to begin their operation to clear out some of the Confederate forces and fight their way to the Confederate city of New Gettysburg. They were forced to be strategic in dealing with the already numerous Confederates in the area and had no time to build a base or get more troops planetside. Thankfully, there were a few points where troops were dropped off as reinforcements.

Raynor’s and Kerrigan’s strategy was to lure enemy troops to them by using Siege Tanks to attack each base from afar while the rest of them picked off whoever comes along with the Siege Tanks blasting apart any unfortunate troops that come in groups. Their strategy appeared to work with each base in turn and ultimately the way was cleared to the central district of Tarsonis City.

While all of this was happening however, some of Mengsk’s covert operatives began planting Psi Emitters in key locations. Upon success, each agent reported to Duke about the completion of their objective. Once the last agent had finished planting their emitter, Duke informed Mengsk of the completion of the operation. <“This is Duke, The Emitters are secured and online.”>

Kerrigan was outraged that Duke may have been going behind Mengsk’s back and started planting Emitters without his permission. <“Who authorized the use of Psi Emitters?”> she asked.

<“I did, Lieutenant,”> Mengsk said.

Kerrigan looked at Mengsk’s on screen image incredulously, as if the trust she had in the rebel leader was beginning to crumble. <“What!? The Confederates on Antiga were bad enough, but now you want to use the Zerg against an entire planet? This is insane!”>

Raynor was in full agreement while Sweetie remained silent, keeping her anger in check. Raynor tried to convince Mengsk to abandon this madness and use another humane plan to deal with the Confederacy. Mengsk, however, was not going to back down from his plans and dismissed everyone by simply telling them to carry out his orders.

It was time for Sweetie to do some prepwork to secure her escape route from Tarsonis. With her worst fears about Mengsk soon to be realized, she knew that she would need to get out of dodge and make sure anyone who followed suit could escape with her.

Her studies on the planetary defenses led to the discovery of the planet’s primary defensive weapon: a massive ion cannon. Sweetie temporarily disabled her communicator and tracker while she paid a visit to the weapon.

Inside the massive building that housed the weapon, Sweetie snuck past the personnel with her Cloaking, thanking Celestia that the inside didn’t have any Ghost detection systems. She would occasionally find a storeroom to hide in and disable any security cameras before decloaking and hiding in the shadows in case someone came inside the room for some reason while waiting for her personal psychic energy stores to replenish themselves. Sweetie was silently wishing for a means of cloaking that did not deplete her energy stores. Once fully recharged, she reengaged her Cloaking and continued to the control room of the ion cannon. “For such an important weapon...” she thought “...the security around here is pretty lax.”

Sweetie soon found the weapon’s control room and knocked out any engineers that were working inside. With the control room to herself, she smiled as she began sabotaging the controls and installing a trojan program into the system so that she could remotely control the cannon later when it was activated, just like Kerrigan had taught her.

With her mission complete, Sweetie returned to the Hyperion while feeling a sense of dread that something important was about to happen and she had a feeling that it had nothing to do with Tarsonis.

Rebel: New Gettysburg

Sweetie’s brief communication blackout did not go unnoticed. She didn’t mind that Mengsk suspected something and she was planning on telling Raynor about her intentions anyway.

A knock on the door to Sweetie’s quarters drew her attention away from her thoughts. She beckons for the visitor to enter and finds that Raynor had come to visit her. “We need to talk,” he said.

Sweetie’s training with her psychic power had led to a discovery where she could somehow use her own inherent Equestrian magic as an earth pony to fuel her new psychic power and somehow, to her amazement, create decent imitations of unicorn magic without a horn. It wasn’t as potent as actual unicorn magic but it was enough for her to use the spells she wanted to use.

She was able to use her power to create a privacy spell around her quarters so that those who might have been listening were left out of the conversation. She was the first to speak after she finished casting. “What did you want to talk about?”

Raynor paused for a moment to wonder what his equine companion just did since this was his first time seeing magic, even if he would simply dismiss this as some new form of psychic ability that Kerrigan taught her...but his curiosity won out. “What did you do?” he asked.

“I created some privacy,” she responded. “Any trust I may have had in Mengsk was lost when he started weaponizing the Zerg for his own agenda.”

Raynor couldn’t argue with that. The thought of turning the Zerg against a large center of human population made him sick to his stomach. Even now the Zerg were being lured to Tarsonis by the billions. The Confederacy stood no chance against those numbers . It made him wonder how many lives Mengsk would be willing to throw away before he was finally satisfied. Nobody was safe around him...not himself, not Sweetie and not Kerrigan.

“So what did you want to talk about?” Sweetie asked.

Raynor took a moment to regain himself before returning to the topic that he wanted to discuss. “Can you tell me what happened to you? Your communicator and tracking device were disabled for a time after the assault on the central Tarsonis platform.”

Sweetie smiled which quickly turned into a mischievous grin. “Just a little surprise I have ready for when the time is right. I think you’re gonna enjoy it.” she said. Her expression soon turned serious. “It’s too dangerous for us to continue working with Mengsk. He was willing to sell out this planet to the Zerg. There’s no telling how far he will go to get what he wants. I’m sure he will even throw our lives away if we stay with him any longer. That’s why I am bailing the first chance I get and I hope you are coming with me.”

Raynor gave a slight chuckle. “Seems we’re in complete agreement then.” his expression quickly darkened. “I wanna bring Kerrigan with us. I’ve heard plenty of rumors about her and after what I’ve heard, Mengsk would only add to her suffering or worse, throw her to the wolves.”

Sweetie tilted her head. “What kind of rumors?” she asked.

Raynor sighed before he began. “I’ve heard that she killed her parents by accident with her powers when she was eight years old and conscripted into the Confederate Ghost Program after the funeral. Her time among her instructors was hell and had a negative impact on her psyche; it left her withdrawn from the world around her.”

He shook his head sadly. “Sometime after her training, the Confederates ordered her to assassinate the entire Mengsk family. Thanks to the mental conditioning, she couldn’t even think for herself. She and a couple of Ghosts killed every member of the Mengsk family, except one. And all because the colony of Korhal wanted to be independent of the Confederacy.

“Later, the Confederates subjected her to experiments with the Zerg. I don’t know what the Confederates wanted with Kerrigan with regard to the Zerg, but I’m sure it wasn’t anything good. She was rescued by Arcturus and he used her to kill the other two assassins of his family. That’s everything I heard about her.”

Sweetie briefly mulled over everything Raynor said. Provided that everything he heard was true, there was a chance that Mengsk may be looking for a chance to get rid of her at the first chance while using her guilt to keep her under his control. In a way, Kerrigan was like a prisoner awaiting execution.

An alert suddenly went off to summon the duo to the Hyperion bridge once more. They walked out of Sweetie’s quarters as she silently promised herself that these would be the last orders that she would follow from Mengsk. For a brief moment, Sweetie couldn’t help but wonder how similar Mengsk was to Blueblood and that made her shudder in disgust.

Lyra was sitting in a chair next to Tassadar on the bridge. Knowing that her marefriend was alive and well filled her with elation, the feeling which was picked up by her mentor who chuckled internally.

The expedition had recently received an alert about a large gathering of Zerg on the planet Tarsonis. The report suggested that this was the largest gathering of the vile creatures yet. While the fleet was planning to repeat the same procedure as Chau Sara, Mar Sara, and Antiga Prime, there were also reports that the Terrans had not yet evacuated the planet.

Lyra looked up Tassadar and spoke. “We have to help them. There are so many innocent lives on that planet whose lives are in danger.”

Tassadar returned the look. “You realize that this goes against the orders of the Conclave. If we try to assist them, then we may earn the ire of our superiors.”

Lyra shook her head. “I don’t care, those people need our help and no Conclave is going to tell me otherwise.”

Tassadar couldn’t help but admire the young mare’s courage. If he had a mouth, he would be smiling. If she was willing to go against the Conclave, then he would support her in any way he could. “Very well, I shall send a relief force to assist the Terrans with their evacuation. You shall go down there with them. It’s about time you got some field experience.”

Lyra smiled and happily nodded. She thanked the templar executor for the opportunity before following some troops to the nearest Shuttle.

The Commander’s adjutant informed Mengsk, Sweetie and Raynor about several dozen Protoss warships on a course for the primary Zerg Hive. Mengsk was concerned about the Confederates escaping if the Protoss engaged the Zerg, so he ordered Sweetie and Kerrigan with a strike force to deal with the Protoss.

Sweetie ground her teeth after hearing Mengsk’s latest order. She knew that this would mean that she was being made to fight against the friends that her marefriend had made recently. He may even be wanting her and Lyra to fight each other, an order that she would never follow.

Before she could voice her complaints however, Raynor was the first one to snap. “First you sell out every person on this world to the Zerg, then you ask us to go up against the Protoss? And you’re goin’ to send them down there with no backup?” he yelled.

Mengsk put up his political facade and calmly stated that he had confidence in Kerrigan’s and Sweetie’s abilities to deal with the Protoss before he walked off.

“This is bullshit” Raynor grumbled.

“I’m going down there,” Kerrigan said. “Arcturus knows what he’s doing, I can’t back out on him now.”

“Funny, I never thought of you as anyone’s martyr,” Raynor mumbled, darkly.

Raynor shook his head and tried to reason with the guilt-riddled Ghost. “Why are you doin’ this Kerrigan. Look, I know ‘bout your past. I mean I’ve heard the rumors. I know that you were part of those experiments with the Zerg and that Mengsk came and saved you. But you don’t owe him this. Hell, I’ve saved your butt plenty of times,” he said while referring to the missions that they went on together while Sweetie was plotting in her room.

“Jimmy, drop the knight in shining armor routine. It suits you sometimes, just not now. I don’t need to be rescued. I know what I’m doing. The Protoss are coming to destroy the entire planet, not just the Zerg. I know this because...well I just know it. I am a Ghost, remember? Once we’ve dealt with the Protoss we can do something about the Zerg. Arcturus will come around. I know he will.”

Raynor realized that he was not going to be able to convince her to abandon this mission. With a sad sigh, he wished her luck and walked away. However, he was not about to leave her high and dry so he went to the armory to get his suit ready.

A base camp was established dangerously close to the Zerg, much to Sweetie’s growing frustration to the fact that they not only have to deal with the Protoss, but they also have to defend against the Zerg next to them without causing damage to the hive cluster and their base is placed in the most disadvantageous position imaginable. To make matters worse, she is also having to be put into this mess not because Mengsk ordered it, but because Kerrigan was blindly going along with this suicide mission.

Sweetie decided to leave organizing the base to Kerrigan while she scouted ahead to check out the Protoss. She figured that Kerrigan would have the Battlecruisers, that were commandeered recently, outfitted and ready to be used against the Protoss. In the meantime she looked around the battlefield and soon came across the aliens. Some of them were already moving against the base to get to the Zerg. Everything about the mission annoyed her to no end. The Zerg should be the ones to be eliminated and yet she saw humans and Protoss fighting each other because of the ambitions of a madman.

She observed a small scouting party of Marines heading southeast to look for the Protoss base when they were intercepted by a lone enemy.

Sweetie could not properly make out the figure from where she was so she moved in closer to discover that the figure was the familiar figure that she knew and loved.

Lyra was standing against the Marines with a sad look in her eyes and then she spoke. “Why are you defending the Zerg while they are slaughtering so many of your people? I don’t understand.”

One of the Marines spoke up in response. “We’re under orders from General Mengsk to keep you and yer Protoss buddies away from the Zerg. If you don’t leave this planet now, we’re gonna see how many holes we can blast into ya,” he threatened.

Lyra let out a sad sigh as she advanced on the party. The Marines took aim with their rifles and Sweetie started scrambling to stop them.

What Sweetie saw next left her stunned. For a moment, it appeared like Lyra disappeared, but then she appeared behind the squad while a pair of energy weapons, from a pair of devices that Sweetie noticed that she was wearing on her forearms, were deployed. One swipe left a Marine severed from his midsection, another swipe left another split down the middle. Before the rest of the Marines could react, they were all cut into pieces by Lyra’s energy blades. Sweetie had to admit, Lyra had developed some impressive combat skills over the time that they had been apart.

Sweetie took a moment to regain her composure after admiring Lyra’s fight and then called out to the warrior pony.

Lyra’s body suddenly tensed and her ears drooped as she heard the familiar voice, one whom she was hoping did not see her first real fight because she ended up killing who could have been friends of her marefriend. She turned into the direction of the voice and a small amount of despair filled her.

Sweetie approached Lyra and began to notice that she was behaving like she was caught cheating on her with another pony. She had to ask what was wrong. “Lyra, what’s wrong?”

Lyra shifted uncomfortably before finally responding. “You saw that, didn’t you?”

Sweetie raised an eyebrow trying to figure out why she would behave like that after killing a few Marines “You think I’m mad about you killing those marines?” Lyra’s ears perked up in a hopeful manner which told Sweetie that she hit the mark. She sighed before continuing. “These people are getting themselves needlessly killed over a stupid mission that should not even be happening in the first place. They were simply following orders and started threatening you. You had every right to defend yourself. Even if you didn’t, I would have either ordered them to back down or killed them myself if they weren’t going to listen to me.”

Lyra tilted her head in confusion. “So, they weren’t your friends?” she asked.

Sweetie shook her head. “No, they were just troops following orders. I have a couple of friends among the Humans...and don’t start about your usual Human stuff. This is hardly the time or place to rant about you being right about Humans existing.”

Lyra giggled nervously because she was considering doing just that. After that, the two exchanged a long hug and a passionate kiss that lasted for a little over a minute since there were no other combatants nearby.

“Anyway, what impresses me right now are those skills of yours. Did you learn how to fight like that from the Protoss?” Sweetie asked.

Lyra nodded. “Tassadar and his students taught me how to fight with these weapons.” She raised her psi blades to show them to Sweetie.

Sweetie chuckled. She was glad that Lyra was safe and she was able to protect herself. In fact, she was more worried for whoever got in Lyra’s way as those blades could cleave through flesh and metal like soft butter.

The two exchanged pleasantries for a few more minutes before Lyra switched to a more serious topic. “Why are the humans fighting the Protoss?”

Sweetie sighed before responding. “It’s because me and a couple of friends of mine are working under a madman who would use the Zerg as a weapon to eliminate his enemies. I have already been planning my escape from him and to bring my friends with me.”

“Why don’t you and your friends come with me? I’m sure it’s better than working with that madman.”

Sweetie smiled. “That won’t be necessary. I already have my own plan to get out of this mess.”

Lyra gave a slight jump as she received a telepathic transmission from Tassadar informing her that the Terrans had forced his forces to retreat and that he was sending a Shuttle to pick her up.

“Looks like we won’t have time to catch up right now, Bon Bon. Apparently, our forces are retreating and I’m being picked up. I hope we can be together again soon,” Lyra said. A Protoss Shuttle arrived and enveloped her in a light before disappearing with the Shuttle flying off into orbit.

The next few minutes would be remembered by the Ghost pony for a long time.

A transmission played in Sweetie’s communicator that filled her with dread. <“This is Kerrigan, we’ve neutralized the Protoss but there’s a wave of Zerg advancing on this position. Send immediate evac.”>

<“Belay that order, we’re moving out.”> Mengsk said.

<“What!?”> said Raynor, outraged. <“You’re not just gonna leave them?”>

<“All ships, prepare to move away from Tarsonis on my mark”> Mengsk said.

<“Uh, boys? How about that evac?”> Kerrigan asked, her voice increasingly worried.

<“Damn you Arcturus! Don’t do this!”> Raynor yelled.

<“It’s done”> Mengsk said with an evil smirk. <“Helmsman, signal the fleet and take us out of orbit. Now!”>

<“Commander? Jim? What the hell’s going on up there…”> Kerrigan’s transponder signal was quickly lost as her position was overwhelmed by Zerg.

Sweetie didn’t have time to mourn her lost friend as the Zerg started to pursuing her. Zerglings and other Zerg strains began hunting for her in large numbers. She was putting up the best resistance that she could and cloaking to avoid the larger hunting parties but she was quickly being overwhelmed and began to regret not accepting Lyra’s offer for a ride off the planet.

Sweetie’s salvation came when a Dropship appeared with Raynor in a black CMC suit opening fire on the Swarm and creating an opening for Sweetie to jump into the Dropship. The ship’s escape was harried as a group of Mutalisks chased after them. The duo opened fire on the flying Zerg until she ran out of ammo. A Mutalisk rammed into the ship and caused Sweetie to lose her rifle as it fell off the ship.

A squad of Wraiths were nearby and opened fire on the pursuing Zerg giving the duo some room to breathe. Sweetie released the breath she didn’t know she was holding and fell back on one of the seats in the transport. With that experience over, her mind was free to turn to more important thoughts.

At this point, she didn’t know who she wanted to kill more: Blueblood or Arcturus Mengsk.

Rebel: Rise of the Raiders

Raynor and Sweetie returned to the Hyperion with looks of determination on their faces. Both of them knew that the ill-fated mission to protect the Zerg from the Protoss was a suicide mission and it ended with Kerrigan being killed by the creatures. They knew that that mission should have never happened in the first place. They could only blame Arcturus for using Kerrigan’s guilt to control her into doing whatever he wanted her to do. It was time to cut ties with the megalomaniac who Sweetie had her suspicions confirmed intended to turn his rebel organization into a new empire of humanity, one that he intended to rule. “I can’t believe he actually left her down there!” Raynor growled.

Onboard the Hyperion, Raynor tracked down The Commander and demanded to speak with him in private. The duo followed The Commander to his quarters where Sweetie cast her privacy spell on his room. “What’s up?” The Commander asked.

Raynor didn’t even take a moment to calm down as he was still enraged about losing Kerrigan to the Zerg. “Mengsk has gone too far! We’re gone, and you’d better come with us. There’s no tellin’ who Arcturus will screw over next.”

The Commander’s eyes went wide at that declaration. “Are you sure? You know what he is capable of and what he will do when he finds out you’re bailing on him.”

“The militia may not be much compared to the rest of the Sons of Korhal and Alpha Squadron, but I still have a plan to get us off this planet. I prepared a little surprise for Mengsk once we make our leave.” Sweetie said.

Raynor didn’t know what Sweetie’s plan was, but he trusted her since she felt confident in her plan. “So, you in?” he asked.

The Commander, while he did not want to be a part of Mengsk’s forces anymore, was also fed up with the war entirely. He knew that he was not fit to lead an army. He chose the office of a Colonial Magistrate because he always saw himself as a lesser politician. Leading an army, much less troops of a rebel organization, was too much stress for the former Magistrate. He had no intention of continuing the military life any longer so instead he decides to make a deal with the duo. “I’m in...sorta. Here’s the thing, once we escape Tarsonis, we go our separate ways and I’ll leave you full command of the militia to do with as you see fit. I plan to go back to the civilian life and spend it with my wife and kids for a while until I am ready to return to the political stage. Do we have a deal?”

Raynor and Sweetie were surprised that The Commander would decide to walk away from the conflict after everything that has happened, but the choice was his for whatever he wanted to do with his life. They accepted the terms that the former Magistrate gave them and Sweetie undid her spell on the room. The three left the room and separated from there, agreeing to meet again once The Commander informed the former colonial militia of what would soon be happening.

A few hours later, Raynor, Sweetie and The Commander were in the launch bay getting a shuttle ready to abandon the Hyperion. The militia had already departed from the ship and were now awaiting their leaders.

The trio received a transmission from Mengsk who was en route to Korhal for his coronation ceremony. Sweetie knew that the time had finally come to reveal her intentions to the soon-to-be dictator.

“Everyone, you’ve done very well, but remember that we’ve still got a job to do. The seeds of a new empire have been sewn, and if we hope to reap--” Mengsk said before Sweetie decided to interrupt.

“Cut the crap, Mengsk. I know you tried to use the Zerg to get rid of Kerrigan and me. I am aware that she was among your family’s killers. Since she was conditioned by the Confederates to never disobey them, I can’t give my opinion on that matter. Still, holding her guilt against her for all these years just to feed her to the Zerg in the end in what I can only guess was some long con to get your revenge for your family, is simply too cruel.”

Mengsk chuckled before he burst into laughter. When he calmed down, he finally gave his response. “You think this was about revenge? Well, you are partly right. I wanted that bitch to suffer for what she did, but that’s not the only reason. When my family was killed, I swore that I would make sure that the Confederates suffered in the worst way imaginable. Then, I would ensure that my family's legacy would live on through me as I fulfilled the plans that my father made long ago. Humanity needs someone to lead them through these troubling times and I will be that someone. I sent you and Kerrigan on that suicide mission because I was sure that the Zerg would eliminate both of you. Kerrigan outlived her usefulness to me when she started calling me out on my methods and you are a wild card that would pose too much risk to my future operations.”

Sweetie smirked at being called a ‘wild card’. She had always known that her insight and cunning have led to the downfall of a number of Equestria’s criminal organizations. Even Blueblood had, at one time, referred to her as a ‘wild card’. “Remember this Mengsk: this wild card has been the end of many of my foes and you will be no different.”

Arcturus growled at her declaration of war. “You don’t seem to realize my situation here. I will not be stopped. Not by you two, or the Confederates, or the Protoss or anyone! I will rule this sector or see it burnt to ashes around me.” The trio ended the transmission and switched their channels to a new frequency so that Mengsk could not listen to their communications so easily in the future.

The Commander, Raynor and Sweetie quickly boarded the shuttle and flew to the surface.

Sweetie received a notification that General Duke had activated the ion cannon. This was the moment that she was waiting for as she pulled out a remote control, ready to use it once the militia was ready to depart.

In transit to the militia site, Raynor handed Sweetie a familiar rifle, one that she remembered seeing in Kerrigan’s hands. “I found this where she was last seen,” Raynor said, referring to Kerrigan. “Figured...she might’ve wanted you to have somethin’ like this at some point. It’s the latest version of the C-10 rifles: the MK VI. It comes with options for customizations, provided you can find the parts.

Sweetie solemnly nodded and accepted the rifle from her friend. She was going to need a new weapon anyway since she lost her old one. She figured that she could honor her friend’s memory by wielding her weapon and taking up arms against the man who betrayed her.

The militia gathered with clear looks of concern on their faces. Matt Horner approached them. “So, we’re official criminals to Mengsk’s new regime. What now?”

Raynor raised spirits by giving a rousing speech about his intent on creating a new rebel organization with the purpose of saving lives and taking down Mengsk. He declared the old colonial militia of Mar Sara to be reorganized as a rebel organization called Raynor’s Raiders and named Sweetie Drops as his second-in-command. Sweetie was fine with this because the full burden of leadership wouldn’t fall on her so that she could act with a satisfactory level of freedom for her future plans.

Sweetie assured Raynor that everything would be fine if they simply boarded the transports and left the planet. Raynor was still skeptical about what Sweetie’s idea was, but trusted her enough to not leave him in a bad situation. The newly formed rebel organization packed up their belongings and boarded the transports to leave the planet.

It wasn’t long before the SoK and Alpha Squadron began to pursue the Raiders, while the ion cannon began to move and aimed in the general direction of the Raiders. Raynor noticed that Sweetie was in a seat, playing with a device on her lap. He noticed a wicked grin on the mare’s face as she was pushing a button. The next moment, Raynor noticed that one of the pursuing Battlecruisers was being shot down by a blast from the ion cannon. One by one, the enemy ships were blown apart by the cannon. It took a few moments for Raynor to realize what Sweetie did and was doing and his eyes went wide at the realization. “The way you think is mighty scary sometimes,” Raynor said.

Sweetie giggled and took his comment as a compliment. “For now, we need to find some more vessels to buy, borrow or steal. We won’t be able to engage in an effective rebellion without a decent fleet.

“I know just where to find some,” Raynor said with a wicked grin.

“Duke...” Mengsk said with controlled anger.

“Y-yes?” Duke responded.

“Mind telling me why the reports I received show that Raynor and Sweetie escaped from Tarsonis while their escape was supported by the planet’s ion cannon? The same cannon that we claimed from the Confederacy when we secured our ultimate victory against them? And why was it firing on our ships?”

Duke was visibly shaken. “I-I dunno what happened. We programmed it to target the traitors when, suddenly, the systems switched to manual and the engineers got locked out of the system. There was nothing we could do. Only reasonable explanation would be that someone infiltrated the cannon and sabotaged it. When the traitors escaped the cannon started firing on our forces and we were forced to make it self-destruct just to keep it from blowin’ up more of our ships.”

Mengsk facepalmed. He was livid about the abject failure of his forces in allowing a potential threat to his reign escape where they would eventually be able to gain power to one day challenge him. This had left him with one option: use the new weapon that he received upon his coronation.

“Get UNN on the line. I want to see a mass broadcast of propaganda against Raynor and his rebels at all times across the sector.”

Author's Note

This concludes the Rebel arc and the Rebel Yell campaign. Although I said that the story will follow the main campaigns, I will sometimes include parts that were mentioned in the novels or bonus campaigns. It's mainly to help explain things that occurred in the lore such as how Raynor got his hands on the Hyperion.

Interlude: Hijackings and Egression

Sitting in his personal dropship, Raynor and Sweetie breathed a sigh of relief as Sweetie’s plan to turn the ion cannon of Tarsonis against their SoK pursuers worked like a charm. Matt Horner, who was aboard with them, commented how brilliant and reckless her plan was.

The rebel ships had escaped Tarsonis while at the same time, the one that The Commander rode in had split from the group and flew off to some unknown location. Sweetie had the feeling that that was the last time they would ever hear from him. Michael Liberty also went off on his own, giving the reason of ‘searching for the truth’ for his reason for leaving the group; a typical answer for a journalist.

“Have either of you given any thought about what we’re going to do now?” Horner asked.

“Gettin’ away from that mess was at the top of my priority list. Now, we gotta think about buildin’ up our strength; find some people who don’t think too kindly of Arcturus and win them over to our side.” Raynor said.

“Right now though, we need to make ourselves appear impressive if we wish to impress new members into this little organization.” Sweetie advised. “As we are now, we are little more than a homeless colonial militia in a bunch of Dropships. We need more firepower if we want others to think that we stand a chance against Mengsk.”

As they spoke, the monitor activated and displayed a broadcast, one that was extending to every location reachable in the Koprulu sector. The UNN, the main media source in the Terran sector, was broadcasting a video of the coronation event for Emperor Arcturus Mengsk. The Emperor was giving a rousing speech to rally the factions of the sector under the banner of his new Terran Dominion.

After a few minutes of sitting through Mengsk’s speech, Raynor had enough and pointed his gun at the monitor and shot it. Sweetie raised an eyebrow at that. “Was that really necessary?” Sweetie asked. Raynor shrugged.

“Anyway, we are not impressing anyone with a bunch of Dropships and fighters.” Sweetie continued. “We need to find a place where we can hijack a Battlecruiser or two.” She turned to Matt. “Matt, do you know of any places nearby where we can find some?”

Matt thought for a few minutes before an idea struck him. “The planet Dylar IV has a shipyard that houses a number of Confederate Battlecruisers. It used to serve as the base of operations for the Confederate Omega Squadron, but they lost most of their numbers from the Fall of Tarsonis. If we hit the yards fast enough, we should be able to procure some ships before any significant Dominion force arrives.”

“Sounds like as good of a plan as any right now,” Raynor said.

Matt signaled the fleet of dropships and set course for Dylar IV.

Back on Tarsonis, Lyra continued fighting alongside her fellow zealots against the seemingly endless waves of Zerg that are attacking one of the major cities. The group was on a mission to rescue as many Terran lives as they could and ferry them to a world free of Zerg infestation. Dragoons and Scouts provided ranged support and protected her from Mutalisks. In the time since she entered the city until now, she guessed that she had killed a hundred Zerg and she was starting to feel the fatigue. The Zealot close to her took notice of her increasing distress. “You should retreat for now. You are not used to prolonged combat like the rest of us. Get some rest and return when you are refreshed and ready to kill more Zerg.”

Lyra actually welcomed the offer to retreat and rest and returned to the new base camp to rest, slicing apart a few Zerglings along the way. She found Tassadar looking at a few Terrans in white coats suspended in stasis. He was holding his hand to his chin thinking about something. She approached the Executor and asked about what he was doing.

“I am peering into the minds of these Terrans. It would appear that they know of a method to draw Zerg to a world. They appear to be using the psionic signature of their psychic soldiers in a device designed to imitate the signature and emit it across worlds.” He pointed to one of the humans. “This one appears surprised that the device that they designed was being used against them.”

Lyra was shocked to know that the humans would actually use the monsters like some sort of weapon for some cruel purpose, especially a madman who would sacrifice every man, woman, and child on a world to topple a government like the one Bon Bon mentioned. She hoped that Bon Bon had gotten away from the madman.

The newly formed Raiders arrived at the shipyards above the desert world of Dylar IV to discover that Duke and the Hyperion were waiting for them on arrival. The large battlecruiser soon began firing its weapons on the ships. A few of the Raiders ships were destroyed while the rest, including Raynor’s, made it to the docks.

Sweetie, Raynor and Matt disembarked from the Dropship and took cover behind supply crates. As they were doing so, Sweetie noticed a few guards heading their way. Sweetie quickly took care of them with a headshot to each of them. Their armor may be tough, but their visors were not.

As the group moved along the docks, dispatching guards as they came, they began to notice that the firing pattern of the ship suggested that Duke was being careful not to damage or destroy the other Battlecruisers docked in the yards. Raynor decided to take advantage of this and had Matt operate the docking arms near the Hyperion to force the large Battlecruiser to dock. A number of Raiders showed up next to the trio as they prepared to infiltrate the ship.

Despite its struggles, the Hyperion was forced to dock in the yards and the dock’s automated docking tubes latched themselves onto the ship, allowing the Raiders entry onto the ship. Sweetie activated her suit’s Cloaking and infiltrated the ship, seeking the ones commanding and piloting it. Raynor and the other Raiders were left to deal with whatever security was onboard. The rebels fought their way to the bridge where the General was waiting.

“Well well…” Duke said, more than a little irritated. “If it ain’t the traitors to our new Emperor. Son, what made you think that I was gonna allow you to take this ship, especially since y'all are surrounded by my guards.” Raynor looked behind and saw a number of Dominion troops behind them along with the ones already on the bridge. He growled as he looked at the General and his smug face.

“He was thinking that he had a reliable partner to help him out when he needed it.” a voice whispered in his ear. Duke’s eyes went wide as he looked around the room to find that the troops on the bridge began to collapse while he felt the cold metallic touch of a barrel pressed on his chin.

“How did you…?” Duke began to ask, but was interrupted by Sweetie.

“I’ve been getting the hang of these powers. Apparently, I can apply a little psychic pressure on the minds of the weak minded and they get knocked out quite easily.” She looked at the troops in the hallway. “Unless you guys want to be the ones to tell your Emperor that you watched your General get shot in the head, I suggest that you guys drop your weapons and abandon ship.”

The soldiers looked at each other for a moment, then carefully put their weapons on the ground and walked off onto the docks. Matt was hiding from view in case one of them tried to use him as a hostage. Duke was escorted off the ship by Sweetie while some of the Raiders carried the unconscious bodies off the ship. The dominion troops that were still alive were tied up to the docks while Duke got a front row view as he watched the Raiders board his ship and fly off with it along with a few others that other Raider groups infiltrated.

Duke groaned as he was not looking forward to telling Mengsk that he screwed up big time.

Tassadar’s forces managed to evacuate all of the Terrans that they could. Many were not so fortunate. He ordered Lyra and the rest of his forces on the surface to return to the fleet so they could continue with their mission.

Some of the retreating forces were not fortunate as they had encountered some particularly strong variations of Hydralisk while one of the unfortunate Protoss gave his last report saying that he noticed that the Zerg were behaving rather protectively of a small mass of flesh that appeared to be about the size of a human. The mass was also emitting a large amount of psionic waves as if begging anyone around it for rescue. Unfortunately, the Protoss forces near that location were soon beaten and scattered.

Sadly shaking his head, Tassadar left the unknown creature to its fate as there was nothing he could do.

Lyra returned to Tassadar’s side on the Gantrithor along with what was left of the ground forces.

Char: A Call from a Nightmare

Author's Note

Additional tag for chapter: Horror.

Char: A Call from a Nightmare

Raynor and Sweetie finished exploring the various areas of the Hyperion and made note of any areas of significance. To Raynor’s fortune, there was even a fully stocked bar that even had his favorite drink. He grabbed a bottle on the way out. Sweetie smiled a little and rolled her eyes as she saw that.

The duo returned to the bridge to find Matt Horner overseeing the crew as they were acclimating themselves to the various stations. Seeing this, Raynor knew what to do next as he approached Matt. “So, what do ya think?” he asked.

Matt turned to face Raynor. “It looks like everything is in order, sir. What are your orders?”

Raynor chuckled and put a hand on Matt’s shoulder “I mean, what do you think of this ship?”

Matt took a moment to look around him before speaking. “Well sir, it’s quite the marvel of Terran engineering. We could do quite a bit of damage with just this ship alone.”

Raynor smiled. “Good, ‘cause you’re gonna be the captain of this crate.”

Matt was taken aback at the sudden declaration. “Me sir? A-are you sure? I mean, what about you? You’re the leader of this group.”

“Heh, take a look at me and Sweetie, Matt. Do either of us look like we have any idea how to operate a Battlecruiser?” He glanced at Sweetie. “No offense.”

Sweetie shrugged. “None taken. My people are far from inventing intergalactic travel and may never get there unless the Princesses start pushing harder for more innovation.”

Matt’s curiosity peaked at hearing that. “Just how developed is your civilization anyway?”

Sweetie hummed as she thought about how to best describe Equestria’s technology level. She knew for a fact that space travel was still not even imaginable by her people yet. The most advanced thing she can think of in Equestria right now would be the various types of firearms that were introduced to the Royal Guard ten years ago. The infrastructure of the towns and cities range from the simple housing in Ponyville and Appleloosa to the skyscrapers of Manehattan. It’s not like there has been no innovation in Equestria, with magic, there has simply been little need for inventions. She had a feeling that when she got back to Equestria, there will be a drive for exploring beyond her world.

She snapped out of her thoughts to answer his question. “Space travel is not even imaginable to my people at this point in time. The only reason I haven’t freaked out from culture shock is because I have been known to be quite adaptable. My world’s most advanced innovation at the moment is firearms.”

Matt’s eyes widened in surprise. “Wow, makes me wonder how you ended up so far from your world. By the way, that other pony you were with at New Gettysburg, do you know her?”

“Yeah, I know her. She’s my marefriend, or girlfriend in your terms, Lyra Heartstrings. She ended up displaced from my world at the same time I did. Apparently, she ended up among the Protoss.”

“And how is she taking all of this? The Protoss are even more advanced than us, so I can only imagine what she went through.”

Sweetie shrugged. “Don’t worry about her. She takes things in stride better than I do. Right now, she’s probably more excited that she finally got to see a human and is ready to rub it in my face that her theories about humans were right, even if her first meeting with one ended up with a squad getting divided into pieces literally by those magic blades of her’s.”

Matt had no idea what to make of the Protoss weapons either since the info they have on the enigmatic race was woefully lacking. Unfortunately, the events of today have left him exhausted and ready for a good rest so he was unable to carry the conversation further. He bid Sweetie good night and left the bridge for his cabin. Raynor and Sweetie soon followed suit and went to their cabins for a good night’s sleep.

Her sleep was not as peaceful as she would have preferred. Her dreams were filled with images familiar and not. She saw Zerg, distant and up close. She saw a world that she had never seen before. The world appeared like it would not be able to support life since it was burnt out with no sign of green anywhere on it. All she saw was volcanic soil and magma.

The last thing she saw before she woke up was the image of a person calling out to her for help.

A few weeks later, Raynor and Sweetie were on the bridge in silence. After a few more minutes, the silence was broken by Raynor.

“I think Sarah is alive.”

With a sigh, Sweetie responded. “As much as I would like to refute your claim, I think you may be right. I kept having a strange dream about a fiery planet, Zerg and who I think is Kerrigan.”

“Do you think she’s callin’ out to us?” Raynor asked.

“Perhaps, but something tells me that we’re not going to like what we see if we go there. If we do, we better be prepared for anything. If the Zerg took her to that planet, then we can expect more Zerg there than anywhere we have seen so far.”

Raynor shuddered at the thought of a planet full of billions, perhaps trillions, of Zerg. However, his determination to rescue Kerrigan won through. With that, they began their search for the volcanic planet they were being drawn to.

“Hmm…” Tassadar hummed. “I can sense a powerful psionic call drawing me somewhere.”

Lyra, who had just woken up from her slumber herself, looked up at her mentor and gave him a curious look. “Do you know where it’s coming from?”

Tassadar shook his head. “I am not certain, but I feel the call drawing me to a barren ash world called Char. I have felt this psionic signature before on Tarsonis. Whoever or whatever is emitting these waves is calling everyone who can sense it.”

“Should we go check it out?” Lyra asked. Tassadar nodded.

The conversation was interrupted when they received a communication from Aiur. The image displayed a furious looking Aldaris, who looked like he was not willing to listen to anything they had to say.

“Tassadar, you have deviated from your mission and attempted to engage the Zerg instead of purifying the infested worlds. The Conclave has ordered the fleet recalled to Aiur where you shall await your punishment for your failure.”

“Aldaris, has the Conclave fallen so far as to abandon the Dae’Uhl? Must we abandon the teachings of the Xel’naga and revert to how we were before the coming of the race that sired us?” Tassadar asked.

“You have your orders: return to Aiur at once.” With that, the transmission ended.

“What’s going to happen?” Lyra asked. She grew increasingly concerned for her mentor.

Tassadar mentally sighed. “I cannot return to Aiur yet. We must investigate this psionic presence. Though, I fear that if they intend to execute me for my failure, they will likely do the same to you under the pretense of an attempted attack on our homeworld.”

Lyra’s pupils shrank. She didn’t understand why the Conclave would punish her mentor for saving innocent lives and that they would execute her for something beyond her control. Capital punishment was never allowed on Equestria, so she was unable to fathom what the Conclave was thinking. “What are we going to do?” she asked.

Tassadar put a hand on Lyra’s head. “Worry not Lyra, I will not allow harm to come to you. I still uphold the oath of the Dae’Uhl to protect innocent life, even if the Conclave has forsaken it. For now, I will order the fleet to return to Aiur without us while we investigate the psionic signature.

After sending the fleet back home, he signaled the helmsman to set course for the planet Char.

Elsewhere…

The psionic call reached out over a vast portion of the Koprulu sector. A large band of Protoss also detected the energy. One of them made a decision on whether or not to investigate. Part of him believed that this was most likely a trap, but he was willing to investigate while remaining cautious at the same time.

“Prelate, are you sure you wish to investigate?” one said.

The first nodded. “We will approach the situation with caution. If something out there is powerful enough to be felt here all the way from Char, we must know if the source of that energy is a threat. We must also contain the expansion of the creatures known as the Zerg by culling their numbers on the planet. We will deal with the situation as we know more.”

The second one nodded in acknowledgement and signaled the accompanying ships to Char.

The Raider fleet appeared above the planet to find a small fleet of Dominion ships had begun arriving. Norad III was among them.

“Looks like we may be competing against Duke for this operation” Sweetie said.

Raynor, in his suit, addressed the away team. “All right, All crews, stay frosty and keep your eyes peeled for our target. Remember, not only are we up against the Zerg here, but our old pal General Duke may be creepin’ around too.”

With that, the away team began making their way to the transports. Before they started heading for the transports themselves, Raynor and Sweetie heard an audio transmission from a familiar voice that made them smile. “All right you sorry bastards! Fall back! Fall back!” The duo couldn’t help but pity Duke as he had apparently failed miserably in his mission. With that, Sweetie and Raynor boarded their transport and headed to the surface.

On the way, Sweetie noticed that Raynor was looking anxious about something so she asked about it. “It’s nothing” he said. “It’s just that I’m worried that this trip might be a huge mistake.”

“You and me both” Sweetie said. “I figured convincing you wasn’t gonna happen so I’m here to make sure you don’t get killed.”

Raynor couldn’t help but chuckle. He couldn’t deny that they were practically engaging in a suicide mission. The rest of the trip was spent in silence.

On the surface, a base camp had already been set up and ready to begin the search for Kerrigan. The search had led the expedition to a large cavern where Sweetie had sensed the psionic waves were coming from. A significant strike force was formed to invade the cavern in hopes of finding the missing Ghost. Many Zerg were encountered along the way and the number of Marines accompanying them began to dwindle as the Zerg picked off their numbers one by one.

Their searched finally bore fruit as they reached the end of the cavern to find a massive construct of flesh which, Sweetie sensed, contained their missing friend. Raynor began approaching the construct.

Unfortunately, their search proved too late as the structure opened and, to their horror, an abominable figure emerged. The form appeared as a human female in shape. Her face was a sickly green color while the rest of the body looked like the skin had melted off, revealing her muscular structure which was covered in chitinous armor. Her feet looked like they fused with high heel shoes. Her hands were reinforced with chitinous claws. Her hair had been replaced by brown and black tentacles/dreadlocks. Her eyes were glowing yellow and on her back were massive wing-like appendages that were about as long as her body.

Sweetie and Raynor could only stare in horror as their friend had been transformed into some monstrous being. “Mother of God...Kerrigan, what have they done to you?”

In a matter of seconds, Kerrigan dashed towards the group and, using her claws, slashed apart every Marine that accompanied the duo. In that moment, Raynor and Sweetie felt true fear as the monstrous form of their former friend stared at them.

“Sarah, is that really you?” Raynor asked.

Kerrigan gave an evil smirk. “To an extent, I’m far more than I once was Jim. You shouldn’t have come here.”

“But the dreams...I dreamed that you were still alive...that somehow...you were calling to me.”

“I was. While I was in the chrysalis, I instinctively reached out to you and Arcturus telepathically. Apparently, Arcturus sent Duke here to reclaim me. But that was then Jim, I’m one of the Zerg, now. And I like what I am. You can’t imagine how this feels.”

The way Kerrigan was talking sent a chill of dread down his spine. Cautiously, he said “So what? Are you gonna kill us now darlin’?”

“That is certainly within my power. Except that I‘m not allowed to harm Sweetie Drops. Apparently, the Overmind wants her captured instead for some reason. But where’s the fun in simply killing you and apprehending Sweetie. Neither of you are a threat to me, so I will allow you two to leave this cavern with your lives...before I begin hunting for you.”

“Doesn’t look like we have much choice,” Sweetie said. “But what does this Overmind want with me?”

“You will have to ask it yourself when you meet it.”

Raynor and Sweetie raced out of the cavern as fast as they could to rally with their troops when Kerrigan began speaking into their minds. “Don’t even think of escaping the planet. The swarm is already engaging the fleets in orbit: Yours and Duke’s.”

Raynor’s eyes widened in horror and quickly engaged his communicator. “Matt, the Zerg are attacking the fleet! Get the fleet away from the planet! Now!”

“But sir! What about you?” Matt asked.

“We’ll find a way to survive until you get back just jump out of here before you get boarded. Now go! That’s an order!” Raynor yelled. He deactivated his communicator. He then turned and looked at Sweetie. “Well Sweetie, looks like we’re gonna be here for a while.”

Sweetie sighed and shook her head. This was going to be the ultimate test of their wits as they survive a volcanic wasteland being pursued by a psychotic former friend. She could only pray to Celestia that things would only get better from here.

Char: A Desperate Alliance

The Gantrithor arrived in high orbit around the planet Char. It didn’t take long for the Protoss to discover a number of Terran ships that were displaying Zerg biosignatures. Their sensors also picked up a dwindling number of Terran signatures, revealing that the fleet was currently under attack from the Zerg.

Lyra wanted to help the besieged humans before they were wiped out, but Tassadar shook his head. “We simply do not have the numbers to effectively assist them anymore. We can save one, maybe two ships at best. However, we also put ourselves at risk of coming under attack from the other ships should the Zerg or some foolish Terrans decide to engage us. With only one ship, our best course of action is to wipe them out before the Zerg fully take over the ships.”

Lyra sighed in resignation. She knew Tassadar was right about them not being in any position to save anyone right now. It didn’t make the act of mercy killing the overwhelmed Terrans any less painful. She had to watch as Tassadar ordered the main weapons of the carrier to open fire on the infested Battlecruisers. In the chaos of their own conflict, the ships barely had any time at all to retaliate before they were all obliterated.

“Now then, let us continue this mission” said Tassadar. “We need to investigate the psionic signature which has recently become more mobile. We shall bring our forces to the planet’s surface and investigate.” He turns to Lyra. “I am impressed with how fast your skills have grown in such a short time. I do not know if I can convince the Conclave to spare you, but you deserve a fighting chance should the worst occur. I shall impart upon you some of the techniques of the Templar while we battle the Zerg on Char.”

Lyra perked at her mentor’s offer to teach her more techniques that she could impress Bon Bon with when they find each other again.

With the Terran fleet taken care of, Tassadar orders every warrior he can spare to board Shuttles to the surface.

Sweetie and Raynor continue to move their operations when faced with overwhelming numbers of Zerg. Kerrigan had been psychically tormenting the duo by speaking into their minds. The two of them have been using that to their advantage to relocate their operations to remain one step ahead of the infested human.

To their surprise, they discovered a Protoss camp during one of their relocations. Raynor was still wary of the Protoss since they were going around incinerating planets. Sure, they were planets that had Zerg on them, but he had to wonder how many Terran lives were ended by their actions. Raynor was considering moving his forces to another location, but Sweetie made the decision for him. “Look, Raynor, I know the Protoss have been rude and imposing since coming into the sector and blasting Terran-owned planets, but I’d rather take my chances with them than constantly running from your ex-girlfriend. Besides, Lyra is probably with them so I doubt they will be so quick to attack us.” With that, Sweetie moved toward the Protoss camp. Raynor sighed in resignation and followed after his companion.

When Sweetie and Raynor neared the camp, they found themselves face to face against a few Zealots. Raynor raised his rifle in self-defense as he waited for the inevitable attack. Sweetie calmly approached the warriors and spoke: “Is Lyra Heartstrings among you? I am a close friend of hers.”

The Zealots looked at each other for a moment, then looked at Sweetie again. “Are you the one Lyra calls ‘Bon Bon’?” one of them said.

“Yes, that’s me,” Sweetie responded. “My real name is Sweetie Drops. Lyra is just used to calling me by my other name so it stuck with her.

The guards looked at each other again, then one of them went into the camp. While they were waiting, Raynor decided to take this time to ask Sweetie about her name. “Bon Bon?” he asked.

“Back during my agency days, I had to go by an alias for my missions. Bon Bon was my most recent, just before Blueblood ordered the strike force to destroy the agency and kill the agents. I ended up using the name to hide in plain sight while working as a candy maker in Ponyville. It took Lyra about a year to realize that Bon Bon wasn’t my real name. By then, she preferred to call me that so I let her.”

Raynor had heard the summarized version of her past while they were becoming friends back on Mar Sara. Raynor had also told her about a few things about his past like being part of a farming family and spending a few years as an outlaw with his old buddies such as Tychus Findley.

The guard returned a few minutes later with a blur of aquamarine charging ahead of him and knocking Sweetie over. Raynor did not envy Sweetie in that moment as that tackle looked painful.

Raynor looked back towards to camp and saw another Protoss heading for them. This one appeared to be the leader. He approached the group and spoke “Greetings human, and...pony. I welcome you to my base.”

“At least he got it right,” Sweetie thought, thinking about how Mengsk called her a horse as she was getting back up on her hooves after Lyra’s affectionate tackle. Tassadar picked up on the thought and made a mental note to avoid using it, even if he didn’t know what a horse was.

Tassadar allowed Raynor and Sweetie inside the base while leaving the rest of the Raiders outside until he could determine if they were trustworthy. He looked at Sweetie and asked: “I take it that you are Bon Bon.”

“Yes, but please call me Sweetie. Lyra is the only one I let call me Bon Bon.”

“I take it that is your true name.” Sweetie nodded. “Very well, I am Tassadar. I am the leader of this expedition and mentor to Lyra Heartstrings. Tell me, what brings you to this world.”

“Something tells me it’s the same reason you’re here,” Sweetie responded.

“The psionic call drew you to this world as well?” Tassadar asked. Sweetie nodded. “Have you had any luck locating its source?”

“Yes we have, and I can tell you that it’s not friendly. Sarah Kerrigan, a human psychic, was sent on a mission to prevent your forces from engaging the Zerg on Tarsonis. She paid the price for accepting the mission when the Zerg abducted her and turned her into a powerful monster who is emitting the psionic signature that you may be sensing right now.”

Tassadar closed his eyes, rubbed his chin and hummed for a moment. “This is disturbing news. With the power she is emitting, she is definitely a threat. Have you discovered any weaknesses?”

“Only that she seems cocky and is most likely on a power trip to test her new abilities. She seems to be under the illusion that tormenting myself and Raynor…” She pointed at the man. “...mentally, that she is wearing at our morale, when we are using it to our advantage to avoid her.”

“It sounds like she is quite predictable and prone to deception.” Tassadar said.

Sweetie looked over her shoulder to see more Protoss dressed differently than the others. She pointed behind the Executor and said: “Are those guys with you?”

Tassadar looked behind him and his body tensed for a moment before he deployed his psi blades and began attacking one of them who wore a cloth mask over his face. His eyes were glowing green and was wearing armor with glowing green gems embedded and a maroon cloth covering his body.

The defending Protoss did not deploy his blade. Instead he focused on dodging Tassadar’s attacks. Sweetie saw this as strange and in her desire to get some answers, she approached one of the unusual Protoss. “Can you tell me what is going on here?” she asked.

The Protoss looked at her as if she had grown a second head. “You don’t know?” he asked. “We are the Nerazim, the Dark Templar. We severed ourselves from the Khala long ago and were branded as heretics for our actions. The followers of the Khala bear a deep hatred for our kind while some of us may still be bitter for our banishment from Aiur. Our beliefs oppose theirs and thus, we are at war with one another.

Sweetie did not understand much of what the Protoss just said. Hoping to get a better understanding, she looked at Lyra. “There were a lot of terms in that that I didn’t understand. Do you know?” she asked.

Lyra hummed then said. “I think that if we put what he said into something from Equestria, the followers of the Khala...” She pointed to Tassadar. “...are like the followers of Princess Celestia. While the Nerazim…” She pointed to the strangely dressed Protoss. “...are like the followers of Princess Luna. They seem to be at war with one another because of differences of beliefs. The Khala appears to be some sort of mysterious power that allows the followers of the Khala to connect with one another while the Nerazim decided that they wanted to keep their thoughts to themselves. Which I guess made the Khalai paranoid of the Nerazim because they didn’t know what the Nerazim were thinking and that paranoia turned to conflict.”

“So basically, these two are wasting their energy on each other when we should be concerned with dealing with the real threat,” Sweetie said.

“Yeah, that’s pretty much it,” said Lyra.

Sweetie sighed and unslung her rifle. She pointed the weapon in the area between the two combatants. When Tassadar and the newcomer started charging each other again, Sweetie fired a shot at the ground between them, stopping them in their tracks and drawing the attention of the two. Tassadar did not look happy while the newcomer looked relieved.

Sweetie put her rifle behind her back once more then took a deep breath before speaking. “This is not the time to be settling some differences of ideals you two! We have a bigger threat hunting for us and we need a plan to defeat them and not each other. Are we clear?”

Tassadar and the other Protoss nodded and Sweetie continued: “Good. Now then…” she pointed at the Protoss who was fighting Tassadar. “You look like the leader of the group. What’s your name?”

The Protoss introduced himself as Zeratul, Dark Prelate of the Nerazim. He had also come investigating the mysterious psionic signature that lured everyone else to Char. Sweetie, wanting to keep things simple because of her growing irritation, asked Zeratul if his people were evil, to which he replied “No.” Sweetie nodded and demanded that Tassadar and Zeratul try to get along under threat of testing the durability of their energy shields until she actually causes a wound.

Raynor approached Sweetie cautiously since she seemed quite irritated. “Are you sure we can trust these guys?” he asked.

Looking at Raynor, Sweetie responded “Honestly, I don’t know. Lyra seems to trust Tassadar at least and I’m not about to doubt Lyra.”

Sweetie calls for a meeting with herself, Lyra, Raynor, Tassadar and Zeratul. Sweetie begins with a question for Zeratul: “Do you know of any effective ways of dealing with the Zerg?”

“The best way to deal with the Zerg is to kill the Cerebrates that the Overmind uses to command the Swarm. The Cerebrates themselves are helpless but will detect me or my brethren if we get too close. There is one Cerebrate nearby that we can kill, but we must remain cautious of Kerrigan. If she catches on to our plan then my brethren will be put at great risk,” Zeratul responded.

“Maybe one of us can distract her while the rest of us engage the Cerebrate.” Lyra offered.

“It must be a Dark Templar that strikes down the cerebrate. The creatures have the ability to regenerate from death unless they are slain by those who radiate similar energies to their own. Only a Dark Templar can wield such power.” Zeratul said.

Sweetie hummed and said: “Then it must be you, Tassadar. You must distract Kerrigan while Zeratul engages the Cerebrate. You don’t need to fight her, just keep her away from the Cerebrate long enough for him to get the job done."

“What about me?” Raynor asked.

“You and I have been running from Kerrigan for a while now and we need some time to rest.” Sweetie turned to Lyra. “Lyra, I want you to stay here. I’m trusting Tassadar and Zeratul to get their tasks done and I don’t want to put any unnecessary risks on us right now. Besides, we have some catching up to do. We also need to relocate while the Zerg deal with the fallout.”

Lyra smiled. She had been eager to tell Sweetie all about her adventures and the training she underwent with Tassadar.

The meeting adjourned and the two Protoss leaders executed the plan while the ponies discussed their adventures so far. Raynor sat around eating some rations while listening to the girls’ discussion.

Char: Path of Shadows

Tassadar and Zeratul returned to base a few hours later. Raynor, Sweetie and Lyra eagerly awaited the news of their latest actions. Tassadar seemed pleased with himself that he made a fool out of the infested human. Zeratul, however was difficult to read for the Ponys.

The five of them gathered for a meeting to discuss what happened. Tassadar went first. “I had revealed just enough of my power to lure Kerrigan to me. It would appear that she has declared herself Queen of the Zerg. You were right, she is quite arrogant and eager to test her new power. She was easily deceived by a simple hallucination of myself.”

“It’s a templar technique that lets them create psionic images of themselves or others and only those with sensory abilities can tell the fakes,” Lyra clarified. Sweetie raised an eyebrow. “Tassadar has been teaching me how to use Templar abilities.”

Sweetie hummed before turning to Zeratul to ask him of the results of his mission. “I’m afraid that I have both good and ill tidings to give,” Zeratul began. “I have slain the cerebrate that was controlling one of the Zerg Broods. As a result, the entire Brood has become feral and will likely grant us some time while the remaining Cerebrates focus their energies on eliminating the feral Brood. The unfortunate part came with the act of slaying the Cerebrate. In that moment, my mind was connected to the Overmind and I have discovered many of its secrets while the Overmind took from my mind the secret location of Aiur, the Protoss homeworld.”

Lyra gasped. While there are some Protoss on that world that she would not miss, such as Aldaris and the Conclave, there were still a few Protoss on Aiur that she still considered her friends, such as Artanis, Fenix and Karax.

“Learn anything important?” Sweetie asked.

“I have learned that the Zerg had been created by the same race that sired us: the Xel’naga. The Zerg have been given a prime directive, a compulsion, to wipe out our entire race. To what end, I do not know. I have learned enough of its history to know that someone or something desires our extinction.” Zeratul explained.

“Which means that at any time, this...Overmind will likely send most, if not all, of its forces to assault Aiur,” Sweetie thought out loud. “Still, they will likely keep at least one brood here to deal with us, and I bet Kerrigan is still eager to toy with us some more.”

The Protoss and Raiders soon noticed a large exodus of Zerg leaving Char and set course for Aiur. With no way to contact the Protoss homeworld, the group had no choice but to watch as the swarming masses commence their invasion.

Lyra suddenly spoke up while looking at Zeratul. “Umm...Zeratul? Would it be possible for you to teach me how to wield the power of the Dark Templar?” she asked with a hint of nervousness.

Zeratul looked at Lyra in surprise. “I do not know if it is even possible to teach the ways of the Nerazim to your kind. In the six hundred and thirty-four years that I have lived, I have never encountered your species. However, I can sense your psionic potential which has been partially honed.” He turns to Tassadar. “Am I to understand that you are the one who has mentored her?”

Tassadar nodded. “Indeed, she has shown great promise and has the potential to be a powerful warrior. However, I cannot condone Lyra learning the dark arts.”

Lyra smiled and looked at Tassadar. “Master, you said that you wanted me to have a fighting chance if the Conclave intended to come after me, and I’m pretty sure they will be. It would only help my chances if I learned everything I can to protect myself.”

Tassadar looked like he wanted to object, but Lyra interrupted him and continued by telling the two Protoss commanders about the Royal Pony Sisters. She tells them how one represents the day and the other the night, how Princess Luna was consumed by bitterness and jealousy toward Princess Celestia because her subjects shunned her while Princess Celestia ignored her concerns. Princess Luna ended up being locked away in the moon for a thousand years, how she had returned and was saved from herself by some artifacts called the Elements of Harmony and now the two sisters rule their nation alongside one another.

“The point of the story…” Lyra continued. “...is that it is possible for the light and the dark to work together and be stronger than either would be apart.”

Tassadar hummed as he considered Lyra’s story. “Very well, you may learn from Zeratul as you wish. But know this, the Conclave will not forgive the practice of such powers. I cannot protect you from them once they find out.”

Lyra smiled before she responded: “Perhaps you should learn from him too. The more practitioners we have that can kill the Cerebrates, the better.”

Tassadar was about to protest before he considered that he was already in deep trouble with the Conclave and will likely be executed regardless of what will happen. This went completely against the Conclave’s teachings, but now he knew that Aiur was going to be invaded soon, and the Dark Templar may be their best hope of repelling the Zerg threat from Aiur. He could not afford to let himself be restricted by old prejudices.

After careful consideration, he decided to accept Lyra’s offer of allowing himself to be trained in the arts of the Dark Templar, leaving Lyra cheering in excitement.

Looking at Sweetie, Lyra made the same offer to her. “I’ll pass, this seems to be more your thing anyway,” Sweetie responded.

Lyra gave Sweetie a curious look. “But Bonnie, what about your revenge on Blueblood?”

“I still wanna kill him Lyra, but something tells me that the whole Templar thing wouldn’t work out for me anyway. I’ll find my own way to improve my abilities, this one is all yours.”

With that, Lyra and Tassadar began learning how to harness and wield the void energies that the Nerazim use. At the same time, the Protoss and Raiders had to keep relocating whenever Kerrigan came close to finding them. Lyra actually took to the training better than Tassadar did, likely because she was not bound to the Khala like Tassadar was. Lyra learned a number of useful stealth skills that had Sweetie imagining herself and Lyra on a stealth mission together and the thought made her smile widely.

Sweetie did not simply watch the master and student duo train, however. Tassadar convinced Sweetie to let him teach her a couple of useful psionic abilities such as the Psionic Storm and the Hallucination abilities. Sweetie was surprised that she even had that much power in her to be able to mentally generate lightning.

A couple of weeks after the training began, Lyra and Tassadar underwent a special ritual that each had to take alone by sticking to the shadows and avoid detection as much as possible. Both passed the test and were accepted by Zeratul and his Dark Templar as brother and sister. Lyra, in her determination to complete the Shadow Walk, also learned a dark spell that allowed her to assimilate nearby shadows and become invisible.

As the trainees were congratulated for completing their training, a large force of Zerg attacked their position. Sweetie zapped a good number of them with her new Psionic Storm ability. Raynor hurled a few grenades that shredded a good number of them. Tassadar assaulted the Zerg with void energies while Zeratul and Lyra, with her new shadow cloak spell, created chaos in their ranks by slashing their numbers from the shadows.

With the force defeated, Tassadar and Zeratul decided to attempt to contact Aiur by projecting their energies. Lyra and Sweetie assisted them to boost the signal. Through their efforts, they were able to sense a conversation between Aldaris, Artanis and Fenix.

“En Taro Adun, Artanis. Your defense of Antioch has restored my faith in the templar caste. I admit that Tassadar’s desertion had shaken my faith,” Aldaris said.

“Indeed, Aldaris? I would hope that the Judicator would put more faith in their templar brethren,” Tassadar stated mockingly.

“Tassadar! Where have you been?” Aldaris said with venom at uttering the Executor’s name.

“Be silent Judicator!” Tassadar commanded. “There is no time to waste, and I have much to tell you. As you know, the Zerg vanished after the fall of the Terran world of Tarsonis, and though the Conclave bid me return home, I was compelled to remain. A powerful psionic call drew my attention to a remote, barren world named Char. Apparently, the call was answered by others as well. For upon Char, I encountered those who were once our brethren - the Dark Templar…”

“Consorting with the Fallen Ones is heresy!” Aldaris yelled angrily.

“Enough!” Tassadar interrupted. “Hear me, Artanis, for I have learned much from the Dark Templar Prelate, Zeratul. The Overmind controls its minions through agents called Cerebrates. Strike down the Cerebrates, and the Swarms will surely fall.”

“But, there is a problem with that,” Lyra interjected. “The Cerebrates have some sort of ability where they revive themselves endlessly no matter how many times you kill it. We learned that the Dark Templar have some sort of power that prevents them from reviving. I know you despise the Dark Templar, Aldaris, but their assistance is the only way to win the war against the Zerg.”

“You lie!” Aldaris yelled. “We will destroy the Zerg with the might and the fury that is our heritage. I knew that it was a mistake to allow you to live. You and Tassadar will return to Aiur and stand trial for your crimes of treason and heresy.”

“My concern is for the safety of Aiur, not the judgements of the Conclave. I will return when the time is right.” said Tassadar before he ended the transmission.

“So, now what?” Raynor asked.

“Most likely, Aldaris will order an assault on one of the Cerebrates that accompanied the Overmind. Alas, they will find their assault in vain.”

“In the meantime, let’s see about improving our situation here,” Sweetie said. “I have a plan. Tassadar, can you locate the Cerebrate commanding our pursuers?”

Tassadar took a moment to scan the landscape before he located it. “I believe I may have located it.”

“Good, Raynor and I will take advantage of Kerrigan’s psychic link to us to lure her and her forces away from the Cerebrate. Tassadar, Zeratul and Lyra will sneak their way to the cerebrate’s location and take it out.” Sweetie looks at Raynor. “Raynor, do you have a detachable camera?”

“Yeah, I got one.” Raynor removes a camera from his suit’s compartment and hands it to Sweetie, who hands it to Lyra and shows her how to use it.

“I need you to record the killing of the Cerebrate. It’s important that we get that recording to convince the Conclave that we need the Dark Templar. Based on what you told me about them, they won’t believe us unless we show them incontrovertible evidence of it, but since we don’t have any better way to get proof, this will have to do. It won’t convince the Conclave itself, but it may give their agents pause to think about it long enough to convince them. Once we kill the Cerebrate, we launch an all out assault on Kerrigan.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Raynor said. The rest agreed to Sweetie’s plan.

The next day, Sweetie’s plan was executed. She and Raynor lured Kerrigan and nearly the entire Brood to one location after Sweetie shot down one of their Overlords. Meanwhile, Lyra, Tassadar and Zeratul infiltrated the caverns where the cerebrate was resting. Lyra pulled out the camera, took off the lens cap, pressed record and turned on the flashlight, pointing the camera at the Cerebrate. Tassadar assaulted the cerebrate with void energies which seared the worm-like mass of flesh and caused it to writhe in agony. Zeratul started slashing at the beast, which further deepened its agony. It continued to flail around in vain until the creature collapsed in a heap and stopped moving. The flesh burned away to ash.

Lyra kept pointing the camera at the place where the Cerebrate once was for a few more minutes for good measure to further prove that the creature was not coming back.

The Templars regrouped with the Raiders and began mowing down the mindless Zerg. The Zerg were completely deprived of organization and made for easy prey for gauss rifles and psi blades.

The allies saw Kerrigan a little distressed that the Zerg were running around in a frenzy. She began trying to exert control over some of the minions before she was surrounded by Protoss and Raiders. Despite their best efforts, however, Kerrigan alone proved too strong for Tassadar, Zeratul and Raynor. Before Kerrigan made a move for them, she felt a surge of pain coming from her right wing. She looked behind and saw that it had been blown off. Another surge of pain made her look to her left to find her other wing had been sliced off cleanly. She was also assaulted by psionic voltage and nearly collapsed on the ground. Kerrigan used a powerful psionic wave to push everyone away from her before she made a hasty retreat from the area while making a cliche villain’s quote about how there will be a reckoning.

The beleaguered rebels and warriors had earned some time to rest. They knew Kerrigan would likely rally what forces she could against them, but for now they could take solace that they had earned some rest.

Char: Rescue

With their pursuers driven off and the Cerebrate supporting Kerrigan dead, the Protoss and Raiders are enjoying a moment of rest. They knew that the Zerg would regroup eventually and that Kerrigan is slowly learning how to control the now feral brood.

Raynor had injured his arm during the direct assault on Kerrigan. Some battlefield triage had at least made sure that Raynor wouldn’t bleed out but he would need some recovery time before he was fit to wear his suit again. Thankfully, an injured arm wasn’t enough to keep him from riding his Vulture bike.

Raynor had asked Sweetie why she and Lyra didn’t take the chance to finish Kerrigan when they had the chance to which Sweetie replied: “I just couldn’t do it. Some part of me is still holding onto a hope that there is a way to save her.”

Tassadar, who managed to avoid injuring himself, commended Sweetie and Lyra on their courageous efforts in their attack on the Queen of Blades. He was amazed that Sweetie had learned to close her mind so effectively that neither Kerrigan nor himself could sense her presence before she blasted Kerrigan’s wing off. The fight had also reaffirmed for him that Lyra had talent in the art of combat when she took the skills that Zeratul showed her and used them alongside what he taught her to drive off the infested human.

Speaking of Zeratul, he and his dark templar were nowhere to be seen. The band of shadowy assassins had disappeared during the aftermath of the battle. Tassadar made a note to find Zeratul again before he returned to Aiur.

Lyra, meanwhile, was watching with amazement as Sweetie took the down time to practice some of her psionic abilities. One of which really caught Lyra’s interest when Sweetie’s hand glowed light blue and a ration pack, from one of the storage crates that the SCVs had been lugging around, was levitated while glowing the same light blue color. The rations floated into Sweetie’s hand. Lyra’s mouth was wide open for a full minute before Sweetie saw Lyra, smirked, and walked up to her and closed her mouth for her.

After that display, Lyra started bombarding Sweetie with questions about her ability to perform unicorn magic without a horn which Sweetie attempted to answer to the best of her ability. Sweetie mentioned the crystalline substance called Jorium which she suspects may be the reason why she has psychic powers. Sweetie also began to ponder on the similarities of psychic power and unicorn magic.

With the Zerg threat greatly weakened, Tassadar took the opportunity to call in some Shuttles from the Gantrithor to help them relocate to a location off the surface. Raynor had claimed that his ship would come looking for him and Sweetie soon. The Protoss and Raiders relocated their forces to a space platform above Char’s surface and hoped that matters would improve soon.

A few hours later, their hopes were answered when the Ponies and Tassadar sensed the presence of a small Protoss fleet that had warped into their general area. The fleet had sent a small party onto the platform to begin their search. The party had encountered small pockets of Zerg as well as a few Sunken Colonies. The High Templar that accompanied them had preemptively electrocuted some of the Zerg using his Psionic Storm. It wasn’t long before the party found Tassadar and his allies. To Tassadar’s surprise, the party had Aldaris and Artanis among them, the latter of whom he had just learned had been given the rank of Executor.

“Aldaris? Artanis? How is it that you’ve come here? I was about to abandon all hope of rescue!” Tassadar said. He was glad to see one of his old students had come to save him from the Zerg. However, the emotions that Artanis was emitting psychically were of sorrow and grieving. In that moment, the Protoss Commander knew that something terrible had happened.

Before Tassadar could inquire further, Aldaris approached him with his usual condescending look. “We have come to arrest you and bring you home to Aiur to stand trial,” he said.

Tassadar was outraged at how obtuse Aldaris and the Conclave were. They fail to understand that the Zerg are an unprecedented threat to their race and they are pretending that that is not the case. Tassadar snapped at Aldaris: “Arrest me? Aiur burns at the touch of the Zerg and you travel all this way to arrest me?”

Raynor put a hand on Tassadar’s back. “Don’t let it get to you man. This happened to me once,” he said, remembering being arrested by Duke back at Backwater Station.

Aldaris stares at Raynor with a look of disgust. He then looks at Tassadar again and asks: “Who is this human, Tassadar?” putting emphasis on Raynor’s race in a condescending tone

Raynor didn’t like Aldaris’ condescending attitude and snapped at him: “The name’s Jim Raynor, pal. And I won’t be talked down to by anybody, not even a Protoss.”

Aldaris scoffed at Raynor’s comment and commented on Tassadar’s inexplicable taste in companions. Before Aldaris could speak further, Sweetie stepped up to Aldaris and looked up at him, giving him a threatening glare that dared him to interrupt what she was about to say at his own risk.

Sweetie took a deep breath and exhaled to calm herself before she began. “You know nothing about what we have faced, Aldaris. While you have been sitting back and letting the warriors do all the fighting, your warriors have been fighting and dying against an enemy that is capable of replenishing their numbers no matter how many you kill. The Cerebrates and the Overmind that lead the swarm are practically invincible to anything that you can throw at them and unless you can kill them permanently, your people are fighting a war of futility where the end of your race would be the inevitable result.

“You and your idiotic Conclave refuse to accept that possibility because if you did, you would either choose to accept your fate and face extinction, or you would be begging the Dark Templar to help you save your homeworld. Sadly, from what I can tell from your Conclave’s poor decision making, they would more than likely accept the former. Their pride will be the end of them, I can practically guarantee that.

“I must ask you what is more important; the lives of the Protoss race, or your pride. If you choose the former, then you would help us bring the Dark Templar to Aiur so we can save what’s left of your homeworld.

“We can prove that the Dark Templar can permanently kill the Overmind and its Cerebrates. We even recorded Tassadar using the power that the Dark Templar wield to slay a Cerebrate. We can even bring you to the cavern where the cerebrate was slain and show you the creature’s remains. Also, I can only guess that you made an ill-fated attempted to kill one that ended in vain. If that is true, then we have three pieces of evidence to show why Aiur needs the Dark Templar to win the war.

“Now, are you going to swallow your pride and help us, or are you going to flee back to the Conclave and wait for the truth to slap you in the face again?” She pointed at Artanis, who’s eyes betrayed a stunned expression. “Your friend over there already looks convinced that I’m right. Now, what do you say?”

Aldaris stood in place for several minutes, saying nothing.

In the meantime, Lyra was happy to see Artanis was alive and well, but she soon picked up on the heavy atmosphere that her friend was displaying. She asked her friend what the problem was and his response made Lyra’s eyes overflow with tears. Her friend Fenix had fallen in battle to the Zerg. Tassadar was also overcome with grief and sorrow over the news.

Sweetie walked up to Tassadar and reminded him that there was still something that they needed to do. Tassadar remembered that he needed to find Zeratul and his Dark Templar that have wandered off somewhere. Sweetie had no idea why Zeratul would run off like he did.

Artanis overheard Sweetie’s conversation. He felt conflicted because his master and new friends were actively committing heresy against the entire Khalai faith. He also overheard Sweetie’s lecture to Aldaris. She spoke with such conviction that it would be difficult to refute her. She also had several pieces of evidence to prove her claims. She was also right about the unfortunate attack on the Cerebrate a few weeks ago. He finally decided that if Tassadar’s plan would ensure that Fenix didn’t die in vain, then he would put his faith in his old master.

With that, Artanis walked up to Tassadar to declare his support for him. Lyra and Sweetie smiled while Raynor gave a smirk, glad that there were some Protoss who had some common sense.

Aldaris finally snapped out of his stunned state. Even though he had the utmost faith in the Conclave, Sweetie did bring up some compelling arguments. Before he would make his decision, however, he needed one last bit of convincing. He walked up to Sweetie and said: “Show me the recording.”

Sweetie motioned for Lyra to toss her the recorder, which she caught and played the recording. She positioned the recorder slightly above her head to allow the tall Aldaris to view it without difficulty. He saw the images of Tassadar directly attacking the cerebrate alongside another Protoss that was dressed as a Fallen One. He noticed that Tassadar was using a different energy form than usual, one that he could only guess was the powers of the Dark Ones. Aldaris was visibly disgusted that Tassadar was using the powers of the Khalai in unison with the Nerazim. After the creature was slain, the recording persisted for a few more minutes to show that the mass of flesh remained still. It would have taken at least that much time for the Cerebrate at the Antioch province to revive. This one didn’t.

When the recording ended, Sweetie put the camera away and Aldaris took a moment to consider the evidence. If Sweetie was confident enough to offer to take him to the corpse of the Zerg commander, then he figured that the only reason for him to refuse to help them would be his own pride.

After a few moments of contemplation, Aldaris finally spoke: “Very well, I shall support your endeavor, even if I still consider this a mad quest. However, answer me this: Why would the Fallen Ones help us? They would see myself and Artanis as tyrants.”

“That is something that you will have to ask them yourself,” Lyra said.

Tassadar thanked Artanis and Aldaris for agreeing to support his cause. “Now, let us find Zeratul and his Dark Templar” Tassadar said.

As he said that, a large number of Zerg suddenly showed up to bar their way. The Zerg made one huge mistake, though: they didn’t bring Overlords.

Lyra and Sweetie began slashing through Zerg and dealing with potential burrowed Zerg by electrocuting them with Psionic Storms.

As the ponies were making quick work of their assailants, Raynor’s communicator beeped for the first time in months. He breathed a sigh of relief as he discovered that the Hyperion finally came back for him and Sweetie. He put his finger on the transmit button on his communicator and spoke: “Matt? That you? Where the hell have you been?”

<“Sorry about that, sir. We had no idea where we were after we performed an emergency jump,”> Matt Horner said.

“It’s all good Matt, we managed to survive with some help from the Protoss.”

<”The Protoss, sir?”> Matt asked.

“Yeah, seems Sweetie’s girlfriend was hangin’ out with the Protoss and they helped smooth things over for us. I wanna repay them for their hospitality, so we’re gonna help them save their homeworld from the Zerg. Plus, with the Zerg leader there, this would be a good opportunity to end the Zerg threat before we lose more worlds to those critters.”

<”Well, sir, if you and Sweetie are in agreement on this, then you can count on our support.”>

“Good, now can you get a shuttle to my position? I’m beat up right now and could use some medical attention.”

Matt chuckled over the comms. <”Coming right up.”>

Char: Finding Zeratul

Thanks to Lyra’s and Sweetie’s stealth abilities, the Protoss, with the addition of Artanis, Aldaris, and the Rebels were able to escape the Zerg ambush without casualties. Raynor had been shuttled to the Hyperion, which had just returned to Char. Sweetie had waived her own evac because she intended to assist in the search for Zeratul.

To Sweetie’s surprise, a Dropship from the Hyperion appeared alongside a number of Protoss Shuttles. The Dropship landed and opened its main door to reveal Matt Horner carrying a few things.

Matt walked up to Sweetie with the objects and began handing them to her, saying that they were found in Kerrigan’s old room and that if she were still herself, she would have wanted Sweetie to make use of them.

Matt handed her a prototype psi-augmenter that was designed to work with her suit’s cloaking device, allowing her to remain cloaked indefinitely. Even if Sweetie was used to managing her suit’s energy stores, she still had to be careful of how long she remained cloaked during prolonged stealth missions. The augmenter would eliminate that inconvenience.

The next device that Sweetie received was not as useful at this point in time, but would be once she had more powerful resources to work with. The device was a modified version of the tactical nuclear targeting marker that was designed to require substantially less time to maintain before a Nuke locked onto its target.

The third and final device was a sniper module for her rifle. The device would allow her to hit a target from a very long range. The scope of her rifle was also designed to work with the module. Sweetie had a feeling that she would be using the new module quite often.

Sweetie thanked Matt for the new tech and watched as he boarded the Dropship and returned to the Hyperion. She then followed the Protoss and boarded boarded a Shuttle to the planet’s surface.

In transit, Sweetie took the time to observe the interior design of a Protoss vehicle. She decided that while the ship was quite advanced, the design was gaudy. It was understandable since Lyra had told her that Protoss focused on combat and knowledge, finding aesthetics to be unimportant to their culture.

After an hour of searching, Tassadar sensed the faint presence of the Dark Templar Prelate. The source appeared to be coming from a Terran installation on an island that was completely blanketed by a Zerg hive cluster. The Hyperion also sent Sweetie an alert that Duke’s forces were still operating in the area.

Tassadar looked at Sweetie with curiosity over what he just heard. “Are these forces friends of yours?” he asked.

Sweetie shook her head. “No, Duke belongs to the new Terran empire that was founded shortly after the fall of Tarsonis. Their leader, Arcturus Mengsk is a madman who ordered the placement of psionic waveform emitters that lured the Zerg to Tarsonis.”

Tassadar was visibly shocked at the revelation. “Why in Adun’s name would he do that?!”

“To remove the Confederate government from the Koprulu Sector and establish his own dictatorship to rule as he sees fit.”

“Does he even realize how many lives he threw away for his ambitions?”

“He doesn’t care. He’s the type of person who, if he could, would blow up an inhabited planet and sift through the remains to get what he wants. The reason the other Terrans in the Koprulu Sector aren’t outraged is because he puts up a convincing political facade and tells everyone that he’s some valiant defender of humanity while using propaganda to increase the effectiveness of his lies.”

Tassadar hummed. “Then we shall keep our forces alert in the event that we encounter this ‘Duke’ and his forces.” Sweetie nodded.

The Shuttles settled on a small island not far from the installation and established a forward base to open a way into the installation. The Protoss made full use of the resources on the island and created a solid defense of Photon Cannons, disc-shaped structures with a small tower in the center that elevates when enemies are nearby. As the base developed, Artanis started calling in a number of Scout fighters from a structure called a Stargate, a structure made up of two hovering masses that generate an energy field that ships exit from. There was also a structure that was constructing unmanned Shuttles and a type of robot that looked like a segmented worm. Lyra, who had been studying the book that Discord gave her, told Sweetie that those robots were called Reavers. According to Lyra, Reavers attack by launching an explosive scarab robot that is manufactured inside its chassis. “Those scarabs seem similar to the spider mines that are supplied to Terran Vulture bikes” Sweetie thought.

A lone Scout had wandered a little too far from the island and came under attack from a Dominion Missile Turret. In retaliation, the other Scouts came and opened fire on the lone turret.

In response, a small fleet of Dominion ships composed of a Battlecruiser and a squadron of Wraiths came out of hiding from wherever they were. Sweetie, Lyra and Tassadar received an open transmission from Norad III which was still in high orbit away from the battle zone.

<”Protoss Commander, this is General Edmund Duke of the Terran Dominion Armada. You are in violation of our airspace and have endangered human lives in your reckless attack against the Zerg. I order you to withdraw your ships immediately. If you fail to comply, I will not hesitate to open fire upon your vessels.”>

Tassadar, not in the mood to negotiate, sent Duke his own ultimatum. “General Duke, I am Tassadar and you are well known to me. Whatever leniency I extended to you and your comrades before has been in error. I know of the atrocities that your Emperor has committed. Heed my warning, flee back to your Emperor or we will burn your pathetic fleet down to the last man.”

The transmission ended right there and the small fleet engaged in battle against the superior Scout fighters. Missiles flew all over the place and the Wraiths were taking more time damaging shields than causing actual damage to the ships. The Wraiths were quickly shot down by the Scouts’ antimatter missiles. The Battlecruiser was not designed to handle so many fighters and was quickly shot down into the molten land below.

The victorious Scouts returned to base to prepare for their next sorties. A number of Shuttles were prepared and loaded with Reavers while additional Scouts were warped in to provide air support. Once prepared, the Scouts moved ahead to ensure the Shuttles were protected. The Scouts had to shoot down a few Scourge on the way. Once the vanguard had arrived on the island, the scouts distracted the Spore Colonies while the Shuttles dropped the heavy weapons on the island. The Reavers made quick work of any Hydralisks and Zerglings and obliterated the Zerg Colonies and structures on the way inland.

With the route secure, Tassadar, Sweetie and Lyra boarded a Shuttle and landed on the island. With the chaos wrought by the Reavers, the trio easily made it into the installation.

“We must hurry! I can sense Zeratul and his Dark Templar are nearby, but I am unable to contact them. I fear they may be in grave danger” Tassadar said.

“We need to be careful. The Zerg outside were organized. I get the feeling that Kerrigan is getting the hang of controlling the Zerg,” Sweetie said.

Tassadar nodded in agreement and the trio continued deeper into the installation. Sweetie decided to test her new psi-augmenter by attempting this rescue while cloaked the entire time.

The trio comes across a pit area to discover a few Zerglings and Hydralisks surfacing from the wiring and metalwork. Lyra and Tassadar electrocute the two groups above the stairs while Sweetie shoots the Hydralisks in the pit in the head.

Heading downstairs, the trio comes across the scene of a bloody massacre. Ignoring the grisly scene, they head into the next room to find more unfortunate Marines. To the trio’s surprise, a few Dominion marines survived their encounter. The Marines approach the trio and beg them to take them along. Lyra, Sweetie and Tassadar look at each other for a moment and shrug. Sweetie motions for the Marines to come with them, much to the Marines’ relief.

A branching corridor contained a few more Zerglings and Hydralisks with a few Marines holed up in a room. An unburrowing Zerg turned Lyra’s and Sweetie’s attention behind them to find a human that had been infested charging at the group with a mad look in his eyes. The creature looked like an infested Marine with a shattered visor and the signature Zerg growth all over his body and armor. Thinking quickly, Lyra rushed toward the infested terran and sliced him through the midsection.

The corpse of the infested human began releasing gas, which made Sweetie curious about something. She looked at the Marines and asked them, “Hey, any of you got a match or a lighter?”

“I got one,” one of the Marines said. He handed his lighter to Sweetie, who sparked a flame on the lighter. She then tossed the lighter at the infested human. The moment the flames made contact, the gas around the corpse ignited and a small explosion was triggered.

Lyra was startled by the blast while Sweetie jumped a little in surprise. “As I thought…” Sweetie said. “When these guys were infested, their bodies were filled with a highly volatile gas. These infested humans were made into suicide bombers that explode when they make contact with something, We need to be careful moving forward, there are probably more of these guys around and we can’t afford to have one of them blowing up in our faces.”

Everyone nodded their heads in agreement and headed down the main corridor of the installation. The next room had a few Zerglings and an Infested Terran in the far corner. Beyond that room, the path split into two paths.

The group investigated the large room beyond the two doors. Sweetie suspected that the dead end path to their left might be the perfect spot for Zerg to hide. Just in case, she hit the end of that path with a Psionic Storm that hit some hidden holes. Smoke started rising from the holes a moment later with a scent that something living got fried.

The next branch of the room was defended by a pair of Hydralisks which were quickly dealt with. Up some stairs to an upper level, the stairs of which were guarded by a pair of wall-mounted Flame Turrets, the group discovers a teleportation field that allowed some Protoss reinforcements to join them.

The last part of the room had more stairs that were guarded by a Flame Turret and a pair of Hydralisks. The area up the stairs was deceptively empty when the group came under attack from a moderate number of Zerglings, which were mowed down quickly.

With nothing left to search in the large room, the group advanced down the only remaining path. Along the way, one of the Marines claimed that they heard something strange before more Zerg surfaced along with an Infested Terran that appeared very close to the group. Thinking quickly, Sweetie shot the infested terran in the head before he could explode.
Continuing down the gore-spattered hallway, the path splits once more but into three paths this time. The group chose the path to their left and found a moderate group of Marines under attack from a large group of Zerglings and Hydralisks. Most of the Marines were rescued while some at the frontline of that attack were not so fortunate. The Marines decided tagging along with some Protoss was better than taking their chances with the Zerg.

Back at the crossroads, the group took the path that was across from where they were now. A Marine heard another noise and they were ambushed by more Zerglings and an Infested Terran. Lyra slashed another Infested Terran that was above ground for some reason. The group entered another room that had some stairs to an upper level that was guarded by several Hydralisks. Dealing with those, Sweetie went up the stairs to find a terminal that had no security to it whatsoever...just like the Jacobs Installation. The terminal allowed Sweetie to unlock the security doors somewhere, likely down the remaining path at the crossroads.

Returning to the crossroads, Sweetie noticed a pair of Infested Terrans up ahead. Being clever, Sweetie created a pair of illusory images of herself and ordered them to engage the infested terrans. The creatures each collided with an illusion and blew themselves up. Moving down the corridor, they had to dismantle a number wall-mounted traps and had to deal with a third Infested Terran at the end of the path before some stairs up to the upper level. The security doors were protected by floor-mounted Missile Traps which were easily disabled. Tassadar could sense that Zeratul was very close but the next area had a moderate number of Zerglings, Hydralisks and an Infested Terran, which were eliminated by a couple of Psionic Storms.

The Zerg group, for some reason, were guarding a cell door that had a number of Dominion Marines, Firebats, and a Ghost. Since they had nothing better to do, they accompanied the group.

The group discovered that they were in some sort of prison cell block, given the orientation of the area.

Suddenly, a loud cacophony of beastly calls were heard from around a corner and the group discovered a large number of Zerg charging at them with an Infested Terran in the ranks. The charge was in vain thanks to the three psychics using their Psionic Storms.

The group examined each cell door and found one was locked. Tassadar could feel Zeratul’s energy from the other side of the door so everyone looked around for an unlocking mechanism. One was discovered at the end of the cell block guarded by six Autogun Turrets that were no match for the small force. Sweetie accessed the unsecured terminal and began wondering why these things weren’t password protected at least.

The door opened and Tassadar and the ponies entered to find Zeratul and the Dark Templar sitting around the once-locked room. Tassadar greeted the Dark Prelate and stated his intent to bring them home to Aiur.
Zeratul looked at Tassadar and responded: “Greetings to you, mighty Tassadar, Lyra and Sweetie Drops. I knew that you would not forsake us. You two…” He pointed at Tassadar and Lyra. “...have found completeness beyond the scope of the Khala. Yet, I can still sense that Lyra’s true potential has not been fully realized, yet. What lies beyond the teachings of my people and the Khalai, I do not know.” He looks at Tassadar. “I fear that the Conclave, in its pride, would never welcome outcasts such as we.”

“Outcasts though you may be, it is your vision and courage that may yet save our homeworld from the Swarm. I beg of you, Zeratul, return with us to Aiur. Though they are petty, and have, in ignorance, cursed your kind for generations...help me save our people” Tassadar said.

Zeratul was moved that someone of the Khalai faith, who have persecuted the Nerazim at every turn, was actually humbling himself before him. He paused for a moment and said: “Since our banishment long ago, we have never failed in our responsibility to Aiur. Though it shall cause us great pain to see our homeland once more, we shall return with you, Tassadar. We will do what we can.”

“I thank you, Dark One. Let us proceed to the surface with haste. Our homeworld awaits.” Tassadar said.

Before Lyra left the cell, however, Zeratul stopped her. He took from his robes what appeared, at first, to be a focuser, but the design was actually different from the ones she wore. “This is a gift to you, Lyra Heartstrings. This is a focuser for the Nerazim version of the psi blades that you wield. It is called a warp blade. Unlike the psi blade, which is powered by our energies, the warp blade is powered by our strength of will. I can tell that you are well practiced in honing your will. Perhaps one day you will no longer need this focuser, that you will one day be able to create a warp blade without technological assistance.” He handed Lyra the focuser. Lyra, grateful for the gift, replaced one of her focusers for her new one.

“Thank you, Master Zeratul” Lyra said.

Zeratul said nothing as he and Lyra left the cell and began their walk out of the installation.

Onboard the Gantrithor, Tassadar had the coordinates to Aiur transmitted to the Hyperion. The Protoss and Raiders breathed a sigh of relief to finally be leaving Char, which has been a very eventful fifty days for many of them.

All ships set course for Aiur, the world where the Overmind awaits and the arrogant Conclave that will foolishly get in their way.

Aiur: Civil War

Over two weeks had passed since the end of the Raiders’, Ponies’, and Protoss’ ordeals on Char. Tassadar and Zeratul were showing high levels of anxiety: Tassadar for hoping that there will still be a homeworld to save and Zeratul for having to once again see the world that had shunned his kind. Lyra and Artanis were still visibly upset over the death of Fenix, who she had spent a little time getting to know during her time on Aiur. Sweetie and Raynor were mentally preparing themselves for the intense battles that were to come when they arrived.

Aldaris, however, maintained a neutral stance. He still did not trust Zeratul or the Dark Templar. He still views Tassadar and Lyra using the energies of High and Dark Templars as a sacrilege to everything the Khalai stand for. He couldn’t care less about Raynor since he still viewed him as a lowly human.

Sweetie, however, was an unknown factor. In the short time that he knew her, she had proven insightful and resourceful. She made some strong points about the usefulness of the Dark Templar against the Zerg. She could be either a useful ally or a powerful enemy.

Until now, he thought that the Khalai could win the war without them by simply eliminating the hives and forcing the Overmind and Cerebrates to retreat. In the weeks that the journey took, he began to consider that such thoughts were folly. He was still uncertain whether or not the Dark Templar would help the Protoss win the war, but Sweetie’s points had convinced him enough to give Tassadar’s plan a try. However, he told himself that once the war against the Zerg was over, it would be business as usual. He hoped that that would be the case, anyway.

The ships had finally arrived, holding orbit over Aiur. Artanis deployed Observers, robotic probes with their own cloaking generators that are constantly running, to examine the situation. The situation was bad, the Conclave’s forces were still fighting the Zerg, but he knew that they were fighting a losing battle. The Zerg were overrunning provinces and killing every Protoss that they came across. The worst part was that the Conclave still believed that the Zerg were a minor nuisance and felt that their laws took priority over the war.

Artanis’ thoughts on the situation were interrupted by a transmission coming from the surface. He already knew that the Conclave were going to demand their arrest, but decided to humor them by viewing the transmission. What Artanis, Tassadar and Lyra saw next made them look like they had seen a ghost.

<”Greetings Artanis! And greetings to you Tassadar and Lyra. I am overjoyed to see all three of you return home in this dark hour. The Zerg have redoubled their efforts, and it seems-”>

“Fenix! You’re alive!” Lyra exclaimed.

“It can’t be! Artanis told me of how you fell to the Zerg. How is it you live and breathe?” Tassadar asked.

Lyra was also wondering about that. Then she noticed that the displayed image showed what looked like Fenix speaking to them from some sort of water tank with wires coming out of him.

Fenix chuckled. <”Well, after my unfortunate defeat, my ruined body was recovered by our brethren. I now reside within the cold, robotic shell of a dragoon.”>

Tassadar was now sad that his old friend had to spend the rest of his life hooked up to a machine. “Old friend, would that this never came to pass…”

<”Nonsense!”> Fenix interrupted. <”There is no shame in defeat so long as the spirit is unconquered, and I am still able to serve Aiur to a degree.”>

Tassadar and Lyra were glad that Fenix was not letting this new lifestyle get the better of him. Lyra felt a little better knowing that Fenix was still the same as she knew him.

<”But enough of this”> Fenix continued, before his tone turned serious. <”There is much you need to know. The Conclave has branded all of you traitors, including Aldaris. They have also called Judicator Amdor back from his mission of hunting the Dark Templar and Xel’naga relics to lead the defense of Aiur. Even now, they seek to arrest you and execute the Dark Templar, Zeratul.”>

“Figures,” Sweetie, who had been listening in on the transmission, said. “It’s just like I told Aldaris: They would rather drive their species to oblivion with their pride intact than throw it aside for a chance to save everyone.”

Fenix couldn’t help but laugh at how true that statement was. <”And who are your new friends, Tassadar?”>

Sweetie did the introductions: “I’m Sweetie Drops, but Lyra calls me Bon Bon. I’m with Commander Jim Raynor, who leads the humans who are here to assist in the war against the Zerg.”

“Howdy,” said Raynor.

<”Ah, I have heard much about you from Lyra. You must be quite the skilled warrior. If I weren’t in this dragoon, I would test your skills myself. And greetings to you, Jim Raynor. I am grateful for any reinforcements that you bring.”>

“Just who is this Amdor?” Sweetie asked.

“Another Judicator that holds the same level of disdain towards the Dark Templar as Aldaris,” Tassadar said. Sweetie rolled her eyes.

“So, does this mean that you’ll join us?” Lyra asked Fenix.

<”Though I damn myself by doing so, I shall stand by all of you till the end.”>

The ships landed on the surface of Aiur near Fenix’s location to find that he has a base of operations established. Everyone disembarked to meet the dragoon. After a few words of greetings, the leaders gathered for a strategy meeting.

Sweetie turns her attention to Aldaris. “If we want to launch a successful assault on the Overmind, we have to ensure that the Conclave cannot harry our efforts. We need to cripple their chain of command even if we must permanently remove them from the battle.”

Aldaris, who knew what she was talking about, snapped at Sweetie: “How dare you speak about assaulting the Conclave! I should have known that you would speak of such treachery.”

Sweetie, who remained calm before his anger, took a deep breath and responded: “If you have a better plan then let’s hear it. Because otherwise, we would end up fighting the Zerg and the Conclave at the same time and we don’t have the resources to do that, and in case you haven’t noticed, they want to charge you with treason as well.

I’m not naive enough to believe that any negotiation tactics would work with the Conclave, The fact that they refuse to see reason in the face of annihilation means that they are too far gone in the throes of fanaticism. Based on that, I can tell that they are unfit to lead the Protoss and they need to be removed from power before it’s too late.”

Once again, Aldaris was left speechless in the face of Sweetie’s lecture. What frustrated him more was the fact that he was unable to make any retorts to what she said. He didn’t want to believe that the elders, that he had served for centuries, would make decisions that were not in the best interest of the people. In the end, he was forced to acquiesce. “Very well, but I shall have no part in this.” He walked away.

Sweetie turned to the others. “Alright, now how do we get the Conclave off our backs?”

“Near this base is the heart of the Conclave, Khor-shakal. The majority of the Conclave reside there. If we take it out, it should cripple their efforts against us,” Fenix said.

Tassadar seemed distressed and Zeratul and Lyra picked up on it. “What’s wrong, Master Tassadar?” Lyra asked.

Tassadar took a moment to compose himself. “It pains me greatly that we must protect the Dark Templar from our own brethren, even if it means eliminating the Conclave.”

Sweetie looked at Tassadar. “Revolutions are never easy. The Conclave have brought this upon themselves. Try to envision a better tomorrow if the sight of your people killing each other proves too much. That is what we are fighting for.”

“I will try, Sweetie Drops,” Tassadar responded.

With the objective decided, the leaders broke and began their preparations. A vanguard force soon appeared near their base and the leader of the force began making demands.

“Executor Artanis, this is Judicator Amdor. You and the traitor Tassadar are to cease your resistance and surrender yourselves to the judgement of the Conclave. We will take the outlaw, Zeratul, into custody and deal with him as is written by the Khala’s law.”

“Flee back to your masters Amdor, and huddle with them in darkness! For your actions shall set us all unto the Zerg!” Tassadar responded.

Artanis began organizing an offensive force while the base was periodically attacked by Amdor’s forces. A group of Scouts were designated to deal with any Reavers that crept up to the base. Observers were flying around to locate other Observers and counter the cloaking fields generated by nearby Arbiters, ships designed to capture enemies and summon allies to itself.

Sweetie supported the Protoss by using Lockdown missiles to shut down Reavers and ships, while Lyra cut down any Protoss that got in her way.

The rebel forces eventually pushed their way into Khor-shakal and laid siege to the fortress. The residing Conclave members who stayed inside their fortress to the very end were crushed by the very walls that protected them.

The rebel leaders stood in front of the fortress, some in mourning, some filled with determination that their deaths would not be in vain.

Suddenly, Tassadar’s body froze up as he was placed into a stasis field. An arbiter appeared above them along with a pair of Carriers. The voice of Amdor spoke up from the Arbiter: “Tassadar of the Templar, you stand accused of the following crimes: You refused to destroy the Terran worlds as was commanded. You have questioned time and again the sacred will of the Conclave. You have abandoned your home in its darkest hour. Most grievous of all, is that you have allied yourself with the blasphemous Dark Ones, and learned to utilize their profane powers in tandem with our own. You and your allies shall be executed for your crimes!”

Despite the show of force, Amdor forgot to bring Observers with him, allowing Zeratul and the Dark Templar to slip away. Zeratul tapped Lyra’s shoulder and beckoned for her to follow him.

Sweetie noticed Zeratul’s escape and Lyra with them. She trusted that the Dark Prelate had a plan to help Tassadar later. For now though, she needed to get the rest of her allies away from Amdor. She couldn’t save Tassadar the way he is now but she could save the Fenix. She launched the last three of her Lockdown missiles at the Arbiter and Carriers and called for Fenix to hurry and escape. The two of them managed to escape the pursuers before the Lockdown wore off. Any further pursuit was warded off by the weapons of the Hyperion.

Sweetie called for a boarding shuttle to come and pick her up. She needed to restock her ammo and prepare herself for the coming operation to save Tassadar.

Author's Note

For those who are curious about Amdor, here's a link.

Aiur: Eye of the Storm

The civil war that Tassadar brought to Aiur had come to a swift end with the death of Judicator Amdor. The remnants of the Conclave were unwilling to lead nor were they able to find someone to replace him as the proxy of their authority. Because of this, the Conclave went into hiding until the day that they could gather the political power they needed to reassert their authority.

With the fall of the Conclave, the remainder of the Judicator caste, who had maintained a neutral stance during the civil war until now, decided to cast their lot with Tassadar’s followers under the pretense that his forces could bring a swift end to the war against the Zerg. The Judicators offered Tassadar the services of their Arbiter ships to aid in the upcoming assault on the Overmind, which Tassadar gladly accepted.

Sweetie was a bit disappointed in the Judicators for how quickly their allegiances shifted when their Conclave was defeated. For the sake of eliminating the Overmind, however, she was willing to overlook their duplicity for now.

Tassadar was expressing his gratitude to everyone for rescuing him from Amdor’s prison. Filled with renewed vigor and hope, he felt fully prepared for the real battle that was ahead of them.

Aldaris, who had finally graced everyone with his presence after the civil war ended, said nothing as he walked past Tassadar while his own feelings of disgust were leaking out and were felt by everyone around him. Sweetie could not help but respect Aldaris’ integrity as it showed that he had more backbone than his fellow Judicators.

Aldaris approached Sweetie with a request. “I need an escort to my estate so that I can take my Arbiter into battle. You and your...friend...will do,” he said, adding venom to the word ‘friend’ which earned the Judicator a glare from the Pony Ghost.

Sweetie sighed and rolled her eyes, then walked over to Lyra to tell her of the task that Aldaris wants them to do. Lyra rolled her eyes then nodded. On the way out of their forward base, Lyra informed Artanis of where they were heading and he wished them luck.

The capitol city where Aldaris’ estate was, was overrun with Zerg. Normally, the two of them could handle such an infiltration. The complication was that Aldaris was with them and he would be difficult to hide since he can’t hide his psionic presence nor can he use the Dark Templars’ stealth abilities. Because of this, Lyra and Sweetie were forced to deal with the Zerg that came their way.

Lyra snuck behind a few Hydralisks and sliced them diagonally while Sweetie shot numerous Zerglings and Hydralisks in the head, as well as shooting down a few Mutalisks. The trio had to avoid any Overlords that were floating around while they were escorted by more Zerg. Aldaris assisted by using an illusion to lure Zerg to one location and electrocuted them all with a Psionic Storm.

Eventually, the trio made it to Aldaris’ home which also had a bit of a Zerg infestation. After clearing out the ones that they could find, they found a small hangar that was surprisingly intact given the chaos outside. In the center of the hangar floated an unmanned Arbiter. Aldaris boarded the spacecraft and spoke to the Ponies: “I will be heading back to base, now. I trust that the two of you will have no problem returning on your own.” With that, Aldaris flew off in the direction of their forward base, freezing a few pursuing Mutalisk in a stasis field on the way.

A little irritated that Aldaris did not show gratitude, the duo sighed as they snuck their way back to base.

Everyone gathered in one location to discuss their next move against the Zerg. Tassadar started: “The time has come to let loose the fury of the Dark Templar.” He looked at Zeratul. “Perhaps the time has come to tell our friends of the foe we face,” he said, referring to Fenix, Artanis and Aldaris.

“Indeed” Zeratul started. “When I slew the cerebrate on Char, I touched briefly with the essence of the Overmind. In that instant, my mind was filled with its thoughts, and I tell you now our worst fears have come true. The Zerg were indeed created by the ancient Xel’naga, the same beings that empowered us in our infancy. But, the Overmind grew beyond their constraints, and has at last come to finish the experiments they began so long ago.”

“So you see my friends, we fight not only to save Aiur, but all creation! If we fall to the Zerg, then the Overmind will run rampant throughout the stars, consuming all sentience-all life. It is up to us to end this madness once and for all,” Tassadar finished.

Fenix, Artanis and Tassadar agreed on a strategy while Lyra, Sweetie and Aldaris were away. They were briefed upon their return. Afterward, Fenix asked Lyra, “You have learned a number of Zeratul’s techniques. Did he teach you the method for slaying Cerebrates?” Lyra nodded.

“Good. Our forces shall engage the primary Zerg hive clusters in an attempt to weaken their defenses. Once their numbers have thinned out, Zeratul and Lyra can infiltrate the clusters and assassinate the Cerebrates. Adun willing, the Cerebrates’ deaths will distract the Overmind long enough for us to assault it directly. Raynor, you and Sweetie shall stay behind our forces and conserve your energy for the true battle. We will need all of the resources that you can provide for the Overmind.” Raynor and Sweetie nodded in agreement. “Tassadar will maintain his position alongside the Hyperion aboard the Gantrithor while the rest of us will assist in the assassination of the Cerebrates.”

On the border of the Zerg Hive clusters, a small infiltration group led by Zeratul, Lyra, Fenix and Aldaris avoided detection long enough to establish a forward base near Zerg territory. Aldaris’ cloaking field proved effective at keeping his allies hidden from the Zerg.

Soon, the Zerg started sending small attack groups that were completely manageable, but one particular Zerg strain was being deployed that proved a real nuisance: the Defilers. Defilers, by appearance, looked like larger versions of the Zerg larvae. The one that attacked also had a large number of small insects crawling all over it. It had a dangerous attack when it sprayed a crimson mist all over the area in front of it. The mist rotted away whatever it touched and bypassed the energy shields. It also hid underground once it had made its attack.

To deal with the Defilers, a number of Observers were constructed to spot the disturbed earth where the Defilers were hiding. Once spotted, Zeratul and Lyra quickly attacked the Defilers in their holes.

Artanis, wanting to get to the Overmind as soon as possible warped in a large number of Zealots, Dragoons and a number of High Templar who had volunteered earlier to sacrifice themselves to form Archons and overwhelm the Zerg defenses. A small number of Scouts were warped in to deal with any Zerg Guardians that were hovering around.

The sheer number of Protoss being fielded against the Zerg overwhelmed the hive defenders. In the chaos of the conflict, Lyra and Zeratul each attacked one of the two Cerebrates in the area. Both creatures were quickly felled by the void energies channeled by the two Dark Templar.

With the Zerg in the area no longer organized, the creatures were easy prey for a cleanup force.

Meanwhile, the Hyperion and Gantrithor were allowed to advance on the Overmind’s nesting grounds. As per their strategy, Artanis had the Hyperion and Gantrithor take up positions on opposing sides of the Overmind and prepare to assault it with a pincer strategy.

Before the battle began, Tassadar decided to give one final speech. “My friends, this is our final hour. Not all of us may survive the coming conflict. Yet, death may be a blessing should we fail here. We seek now to destroy a foe that has ravaged its way across the universe, consuming all in its path. And now it has reached the end of its long journey. The Overmind has come to destroy all that we hold dear and assimilate us into itself. And I say to thee, this shall not come to pass! Aiur shall not fall! Artanis, I stand ready!”

Zeratul seconded the motion. Raynor showed determination to see the matter through. Aldaris, unusually enough, seemed eager to begin the battle that would determine the fate of Aiur.

“Let’s do this!” Lyra shouted, earning a chuckle from Sweetie, who was also eager to get the battle started.

Raynor put a hand on Sweetie’s shoulder, grabbing her attention. “Since we’re throwin’ everything at that thing, you’re gonna need to pull out all the stops. Which means it’s time to break out the Nukes that’ve been aboard the ship. Sweetie knew that now wasn’t the time to be holding back anything. She still had reservations about Nukes, but made an exception when it came to the Zerg. She checked the marker module on her gun to confirm that it was functional.

Raynor began building up his position, focusing on getting the Nuke Silos set up for Sweetie first. The other Raiders hunkered down in Bunkers to defend their position. Marines and Firebats were equipped while Siege Tanks were manufactured. Some Siege Tanks had to be replaced whenever a Queen infected a Siege Tank pilot with Broodlings while the monsters that come out of the pilot’s corpse hit the self destruct mechanism on the tank to prevent replacement pilots from taking the tank back. “A crippling design flaw that needs to be remedied in the future,” Sweetie thought.

Artanis was surprised by the number of Templar who were willing to sacrifice themselves to bring the power of Archons against the Overmind. So many lives would be lost for the defense of Aiur. He felt pride in his people and sadness toward the loss of so many lives for this one battle.

Leaving nothing spared, Artanis ordered the manufacture of a number of Reavers and had a significant number of Scouts warped in to protect the ground forces. With the Reavers, the attack was going to be expensive on the mineral stores, even with Raynor providing some of what he harvests to assist.

Aldaris called in a number of his fellow Judicators in their Arbiters to support the destructive force that was about to be unleashed on the Overmind.

The Zerg assault was relentless. Guardians and Mutalisks hit Raynor’s forces hard and Raynor was barely managing to repel the aerial assault. Siege tanks were very helpful in dealing with Ultralisks. Sweetie managed to disrupt the Zerg momentum by launching a Nuke upon a hive cluster. Taking advantage of that disruption, Raynor deployed a number of Wraiths to counter future flyer assaults.

With Raynor’s distraction, the Protoss managed to waylay part of the Zerg defenses from the other side of the Overmind’s base. Reaver scarabs tore through Zerg structures while Archons blasted any units that did not go after Raynor and Sweetie.

In a desperate move, the Overmind deployed the majority of its forces to deal with the Protoss. The Guardians and Ultralisks withstood the Protoss attacks long enough to destroy a few Reavers and Archons, but the assault continued. Lyra, Zeratul and the Dark Templar provided backup to make up for the lost troops.

For all of their efforts, the Overmind finally came into the view of the Protoss and Raiders. The Overmind was an enormous brain-like mass of flesh that had used its tendrils to embed itself into the planet’s crust. The core was protected by a hard black shell that was nearly impregnable to outside attacks.

With the defenses of the Overmind penetrated, the Protoss and Raiders moved in to try to break through the shell. Sweetie launched the last of the available Nukes against the massive beast, but it hardly did much damage. Sweetie started shooting all of her ammo at the Overmind and that did nearly nothing. Even the Archons and Reavers were not doing much damage and the Dark Templar blades were just as effective.

The attacks had started wearing away at the Overmind’s shell, however, and eventually the shell broke leaving the core of the Overmind exposed. Unfortunately, everyone was exhausted and their ammo nearly spent. The Archons’ rage had been expended as well, causing the psionic entities to burn out and disappear. Sweetie’s C-10 ammo was just about expended too, leaving her with just her hands and hooves.

Tassadar, who had been observing the scene, began weighing his options. With everyone running on empty, he soon understood that to strike the final blow, he would have to do something drastic. He informed everyone of his intentions: “The Overmind has been weakened, but we are in no condition to continue the fight. I will steer the Gantrithor into a collision course with the Overmind. If I channel enough of the Dark Templars’ energy through the hull of the Gantrithor, I should be able to bring swift death to the accursed abomination. Remember what was done--”

Artanis interrupted Tassadar’s speech when he noticed something going on next to the Overmind. “What is Lyra doing?!”

Everyone turned their attention to the aquamarine unicorn. She was channeling a dangerous amount of her magic and infusing it with void energy. She looked like she was struggling under the strain.

In a panic, Tassadar warped himself out of the Gantrithor and appeared next to Lyra. “What are you doing Lyra?” Tassadar asked with concern. “Your actions are reckless and you may end up killing yourself.”

“And you weren’t?” Lyra retorted. “If you’re done martyring yourself, then help me with this. Bonnie will be very upset if I get killed while helping her.”

Tassadar blinked, then shook his head before channeling his own psionic and void energies into the attack. Zeratul saw what was happening and added his own energies to strengthen the attack.

“We need a little more.” Lyra stated.

Sweetie began adding her own psionic power into the attack. However, when Sweetie got too close to the Overmind, something shot out of it at incredible speed and hit Sweetie in the head hard enough to knock her unconscious.

“Bon Bon!” Lyra exclaimed.

Another figure walked past where Sweetie was lying. Aldaris was grumbling something that could not be fully understood, something about tainting his own energies with the Dark Ones. He began channeling his energies into Lyra’s attack.

Fearing the coming attack, the Overmind attempted to activate a warping ability and escape. However, the escape attempt came too late as Lyra unleashed the energies that tore the Overmind apart. The creature succumbed to the energies and slumped over. The closing warp gate tore at part of the Overmind’s corpse, leaving nothing but a lifeless shell.

The chaotic energies that destroyed the Overmind had been overwhelming for Lyra and she collapsed from exhaustion.

The Protoss picked up the Ponies and retreated to a relatively safe place for them to recover while observing the aftermath of their attack.

Author's Note

We have reached the end of the SC1 missions. There will be an interlude chapter with plenty of exposition before we begin Brood War.

Interlude: Revelations in Utter Darkness

Sweetie’s eyes open to take in the area around her. She saw the familiar bed that she was laying on, the familiar wallpaper that she had installed in her room, the wooden desk next to her bed. Everything around her showed her that she was in her own bedroom in her own house on Equus.

Part of her wondered if she was in a dream or if her experiences in Space were one big dream. She pinched herself on the cheek to find out if she could feel pain. She felt no pain. She was definitely in a dream. She couldn’t wake up either for some reason.

She heard a knock at the front door of her house. Thinking that Lyra might be home, she called for her marefriend to answer the door.

There was no response.

Another knock at the door motivated Sweetie to get out of bed and answer the door.

When she looked through the peephole, she couldn’t see anyone. Another knock at the door had irritated Sweetie enough to throw her door open, ready to punch the idiot who may have been pranking her.

To her surprise, there was someone standing at the door this time. The figure was a black unicorn stallion with a crimson mane and tail. He was wearing a blood red business suit with a black undershirt. Most notable of all was that while his eyes were crimson, they also had a cross-shaped scar through the iris of both eyes.

The stallion stared at Sweetie for a moment before speaking, “Greetings Sweetie Drops, I am here to answer any questions that you may have about myself or the Zerg.”

Sweetie slammed the door shut and blinked for a few seconds. A sound that came from behind her caused her to look to find the figure standing behind her. Regaining her composure, Sweetie asked, “Who are you? How are you in my dreams when I’ve never seen you before?”

The figure chuckled. “A predictable first question, Sweetie Drops. I am the Overmind. I have assumed this form as per the rules of your mind. Do you remember receiving a blow to the head the instant before you fell unconscious? That is the reason that I am in your head now. Both figuratively and literally.”

Sweetie began taking up a combat stance to fight the Overmind turned pony in his head. The Overmind, however, raised a hand in a motion to get her to stop before he continued, “Worry not about my presence. I can do no more to you than I am doing now in this form. I am no longer a threat to you.”

Sweetie relaxed her stance but maintained a wary expression toward her mental guest. “You said that you will answer any questions that I have about you, correct?” The Overmind nodded. Sweetie’s eyes narrowed, “Why are you and the Zerg going around and infecting planets and making war on the Protoss?”

“Because we have no choice.” Sweetie raised an eyebrow at the Overmind’s answer. “We literally have no choice. I was born with thought and reason, but not free will. Even if I disagreed with the ambitions of my creators, I could do nothing to oppose them. I was compelled to obey the overriding directive that they forced upon me: to consume all other species to perfect the Zerg and to assimilate the Protoss into myself.”

“So you can think for yourself, but you can’t do anything for yourself?” Sweetie asked.

“Correct,” the Overmind responded. Sweetie couldn’t help but pity the creature.

“You said your creators, who I assume were the Xel’naga, gave you that overriding directive, but why? Why would the Xel’naga send you and the Zerg against the Protoss?” Sweetie asked.

“The Xel’naga saw great psionic potential in the Protoss and blessed them with Purity of Form. The Xel’naga wished to push their evolutionary progress in the direction that they desired. However, the Protoss grew beyond their control through independent thinking and began seeking their own role in the universe. The Xel’naga were not pleased by this, but were ultimately driven away.

“They later found the homeworld of the Zerg, Zerus. They had gifted us with Purity of Essence and bound us to a hive mind. I was created as the embodiment of that hive mind to ensure that the Zerg could not escape their control.

“In truth, the leader of the Xel’naga, Amon, was a rogue among his kind. I have come to know him as ‘The Fallen One’. When the other Xel’naga learned of Amon’s plans, a war was waged against him and his followers. The war ultimately cost Amon his life, but his consciousness remains in the void where he plots his rebirth. As long as his consciousness remains, we can never be free.

“To answer your question, Sweetie Drops, my purpose was to assimilate the Protoss into myself to aid in the creation of Protoss-Zerg Hybrids that Amon would use to recreate the universe in his own image. Once the Protoss are no more, the Zerg will be exterminated by Amon and his Hybrid and he will continue with his plans unimpeded.”

Sweetie was shocked by the revelation, she had just learned that the Zerg were mere puppets to a far greater power, but there were still some things that needed answers. “You mentioned Purity of Form and Purity of Essence, what are they?”

“Purity of Form is a blessing from the Xel’naga given to those with great psionic potential. Purity of Essence is given to a species with great evolutionary potential. The purpose of the two purities is to unite and create a species to ascend to become Xel’naga. The two blessings cannot be directly given to any one species.”

“So this Amon intends to engineer his own candidates for Xel’naga then wipe out the two component species…” Sweetie pondered on that then changed the subject, ”Kerrigan said that you wanted to capture me alive. Why?”

“In order to combat the psionic abilities of the Protoss, I needed to assimilate other races that possess great psionic potential. Both you and Kerrigan possess this trait.”

“So you intended for us to be weapons against the Protoss?” Sweetie asked.

“In the past, that would have been correct. However, after witnessing the strong will of Kerrigan, my plans were changed. I saw in her an opportunity to resist my all-consuming directive. She may one day free my Zerg from Amon. He has taken notice of this and has retaliated by twisting her personality into something sinister. Amon may not control her, but he can still influence her because she possesses his mark: the same mark that he used to control me and my Zerg.”

“Since you have your small hope of salvation in Kerrigan, where do I fit into your plans now?”

“Prior to my destruction, I infected you with a parasitic version of myself. Now that the greatness of my power is now forever lost, the parasite can do nothing to you but it does contain the remnants of my consciousness and knowledge, hence how I am talking to you right now.”

“So you hit me with a parasite whose only purpose is to whisper into my brain?” Sweetie shuddered.

The Overmind ignored Sweetie’s reaction and continued, “Your journey may yet one day lead you to seeking the might of the Swarm. Until then, I can teach you how to control Zerg. With your current level of power, you should be able to control up to three Zerg at a time...one if you try to control an Ultralisk.”

Sweetie was actually tempted by the offer. She had to admit to the frustration that she felt when all of the Terran weaponry she had in her arsenal was spent and her psionic power was still not adequate enough to be useful against the creature that was now standing before her, even if she was in a dream. If she was to live long enough to get her revenge on Blueblood, she was going to need a lot more than what she had.

“All right Overmind, I accept you offer. Still, I have a couple more questions. How can I increase my ability to control Zerg? My other question: Let’s say someone ends up killing Kerrigan, what would happen?

The Overmind closed his eyes for a moment to contemplate. He opens his eyes and takes a deep breath. “To answer your first question, you can practice your ability and expand it to control more. However, there is a barrier that limits your growth capabilities, to overcome this, you need some sort of catalyst. The greatness of your psionic power is still sealed away. If I had infested you, that potential could have been unlocked, though, I can tell that you would prefer a different option.” Sweetie nodded. “In that case, you will seek out a potent substance that will unlock more of your potential. I shall say no more to that.

“To answer your other question, I shall answer in the form of a vision I had. Be warned, even strong minds may find the vision unbearable. Do you still wish to see?” Sweetie nodded.

The scene in Sweetie’s mind began to shift. She soon found herself on some unknown world surrounded by countless Protoss. Despite the numbers, however, she noticed the grim atmosphere around her.

The Overmind appeared next to her, adjusting his tie as he prepared to narrate his story. “On a distant, shadowed world, the Protoss will make their final stand. Their heroes will gather, their forces will be marshaled, and they will die bravely. But still, they will die. And my Zerg will be slaves to the Hybrid. All will bow before the power of the Fallen One.” He looks around the area, then looks back at Sweetie. “You may observe the battle however you wish, you will not be able to interact with the vision.”

Sweetie looked around. In the center of the compound was a strange device that was being prepared by a pair of High Templar. She also saw a fully functional Protoss base nearby and a group of Protoss near the device. The soldiers looked like they were being addressed by Zeratul. Sweetie approached the Dark Prelate to listen.

“Protoss brethren, heed me! The last twilight has fallen. The galaxy burns around us! The Terrans have been consumed. We are all that stands against the shadow. But if we are to meet our end this day, then we shall do so AS ONE! En Taro Tassadar!”

The Overmind walked up to Sweetie. “In this timeline, you were never involved in the affairs of this galaxy. Although I was destroyed all the same, Tassadar gave his life to end mine. The Protoss honor their great heroes by uttering their name as if wishing to never forget them. This is a timeline where the Terrans, in their folly, killed the Queen of Blades. And now, the universe shall pay for their mistake.”

“Also,” he added. “Please do not tell anyone about the new types of Protoss soldiers that you see. This is a vision of the future and I would rather not invoke any unnecessary consequences.” Sweetie nodded in understanding.

Sweetie noticed the High Templar enter the device, an archive if she heard them right. They appeared to be writing their history and hoped that some future generation would come along and learn from their mistakes.

Protoss ships warped in through a large ring in the center of their compound, bringing in a new type of fighter ships.

Suddenly, a malevolent voice sounded from somewhere: “The Zerg performed their function as I planned. My Hybrid are proof of this. Now, the last of the Protoss will fulfill their function...in death.”

A large number of Zerglings and Mutalisks attacked the compound but were quickly repelled. The Zerg began attacking from each of the entrances, bringing a large number of Zerg to bear against the Protoss. The Protoss scrambled to protect each of the entrances with Photon Cannons and their troops.

The malevolent voice spoke again, announcing the arrival of his greatest creation.

Sweetie saw two types of powerful creatures attack the base. One looked like a dark, bipedal creature with chitinous skin, razor sharp claws, a broad head and dark tendrils coming from its back. The other looked like a glowing version of the first one. They were brimming with psionic power and had glowing tendrils coming from its back.

“These are the Protoss and Zerg Hybrids that Amon is creating for his plan to remake the universe,” said the Overmind.

The Protoss managed to defeat them, but not without them causing some serious havoc. Several Protoss were killed in that attack. A large attack wave attacked the Protoss from all three entrances. The defenders endured the assault.

The ring-like device activated again and brought more ships that Sweetie was unfamiliar with. The ships fired a concentrated beam of energy at each Zerg that attacked the base. The Protoss managed to endure the waves...until the voice spoke once more, mentioning the ground beneath their feet turning against them.

A number of tunneling worms burst their heads out of the ground and start spitting out more Zerg to attack the compound from within.

The ring activated again, warping in a number of large ships that looked a little like Carriers. A female voice spoke from one of the Carriers in an attempt to raise the morale of the defenders. “So the Protoss do have females…” Sweetie thought.

“As I was your beginning - so shall I be...your end,” the voice uttered.

The base was beset upon by numerous Zerg and Hybrid at each entrance. Forced to split their forces, each group had to deal with each wave on their own. The defense barely held.

The voice continued to taunt the Protoss.

In that moment, the archive was completed and lowered into an impenetrable vault, the last hope for the future was stored away.

The overwhelming Zerg and Hybrid forces forced the Protoss back to their base to make their final stand.
The Protoss held strong against the onslaught and the ring activated one last time and summoned a massive triangular ship. The voice of Artanis gave a small speech to inspire the Protoss to fight to the bitter end.

The Protoss killed an unbelievable number of Zerg in their glorious battle. The voice soon spoke again, speaking of how the Protoss and Terrans, in their pride, killed the one hope they had of ruining his plans.

The Zerg began fielding large numbers of flying tentacled creatures that began annihilating the Protoss ships. Thousands of Zerg began advancing on the defenders. More worm beasts surfaced to spit up more Zerg. Zerg were even dropping out of orbit in living pods. One by one Protoss were killed, even Zeratul and Artanis.

“If only we had acted sooner…,” Zeratul said as he burst into light.

“Kerrigan...how could we have known…,” Artanis muttered as his ship was torn apart.

The last of the Protoss was wiped out. Sweetie then saw the Hybrid emit psionic pulses that killed every Zerg around them, likely every Zerg Hive in the universe.

The vision soon turned pitch black.

The Overmind appeared once again next to a stunned Sweetie. “Now you have seen the future that I wish to prevent. The Queen of Blades is vital to preventing this future. I trust that you will set her on the correct path. But first, you must find a way to save her mind from Amon’s influence.”

“Isn’t there something I can do to prevent the Hybrid from being made?” Sweetie asked.

“It’s too late. The Hybrid have already been seeded across the stars. There is simply not enough time to find them all before they awaken.”

“When will they awaken?”

“I estimate that the Hybrids will emerge from their stasis chambers in four years. You must be prepared to fight them when the time comes. Also, I would advise against telling anyone what you have learned today. If others find out about me, they will attempt to remove me from you and all the knowledge that I would bestow upon you would be lost as well as your chance to learn how to control my Zerg.”

Sweetie let out a groan as she realized that her head now had a roommate that was too important to get rid of. Hopefully, she would wake up from this nightmare soon.

Stand: Escape from Aiur

Author's Note

Since the Overmind will be talking to Sweetie sometimes, I will be using the following format to show when the Overmind is talking.

~"..."~

Stand: Escape from Aiur

Sweetie awoke with a groan and winced from a headache that had quickly made itself known to her. She slowly rose from her bed before being wrapped by a pair of aquamarine-colored arms. “Bonnie! Don’t scare me like that,” Lyra said.

Sweetie groaned again before asking, “What happened?”

“While we were attacking the Overmind, something came out of nowhere and hit you in the head and knocked you out. I’m not sure what happened after that since I apparently collapsed from exhaustion shortly after,” Lyra said.

“I had you both brought to the Hyperion to rest,” came the voice of Raynor from the doorway. “Lyra woke up only a few minutes before you did. I had the doc take a look at you both, Lyra was just exhausted and Sweetie got a mild concussion.”

Sweetie was confused by the last part that Raynor said. She could have sworn that she had a brain parasite now, unless she dreamed it all up.

~”I can assure you that your mind did not fabricate me, my new form is designed to be undetectable by Terran and Protoss technology.”~

Sweetie jumped in surprise. Was she hearing voices, or was the Overmind actually talking to her? Lyra and Raynor give her confused looks.

~”I advise you not to physically react to my words nor to vocally communicate with me. Your thoughts will be able to reach me.”~

“Great, so I really do have a roommate in my head. Can you do anything useful other than fill my head with facts?”

~”I can help you to sense those who cannot be seen by the naked eye.”~

“Alright, I can work with that. Let’s establish some ground rules. Don’t say anything unless it’s actually important or if I need to communicate with you. It’s creepy enough to have you in my head so I need some time to get used to it. I’ll think of the rest later.”

“So, anything happen while we were out?” Sweetie asked Raynor.

Raynor shrugged. “Tassadar, Zeratul and the others have been fightin’ the renegade Zerg for the past day, though things aren’t lookin’ good for us right now. Too many of those critters runnin’ around to effectively deal with. They might not be organized anymore, but their numbers make up for that.”

“Just how many Zerg are out there?” Sweetie asked the Overmind.

~”More than can be handled by the Protoss as weakened as they are. It would be in your best interest to escape the planet before you are overwhelmed.”~

“You two should get some more rest,” Raynor said. “Our Protoss friends are havin’ a meeting in a few hours.”

Lyra and Sweetie nodded before Raynor left the room, leaving the duo to get a few more hours of sleep.

Elsewhere…

“So...Gerard...I suspect you have a good reason for pulling me away from my...duties…”

“Your vodka can wait, my good Alexei. Come, stand here. You need to see this.”

“I know all about the Zerg, Gerard. We’ve all seen the tapes a hundred…” Alexei said before he is interrupted by Gerard, who yanked a cigar from Alexei’s mouth and tossed it on the floor.

“You’ve seen nothing! Dissecting a dead Zerg in a lab is one thing, unleashing them on man is another. You must go into this with both eyes open. Once started, there’s no going back. Are you prepared to go all the way with this, Alexei?” Gerard asked, while stomping out the cigar.

Alexei observed the hopeless battle between the Terran colony and the Zerg for a few seconds before taking out another cigar and responding, “Yes, I am prepared to go all the way, my good admiral.” He lit his cigar.

“Good, good, I knew I could count on you,” Gerard said.

An announcement came over the loudspeaker, “Admiral, the colonist’s base will be overrun in a matter of minutes. Shall we intervene?”

“Take us into orbit, Mr. Malmsteen. We’ve seen enough.”

Lyra, Sweetie, Raynor, Artanis, Aldaris, Tassadar, Zeratul and Fenix gathered to begin their meeting. Fenix was the one to begin. “En taro Adun, everyone. It seems that we are in a most dire situation. Since the Zerg arrived on Aiur, we have lost over seventy percent of our total population. We cannot continue at this rate.”

“Without the Conclave to lead us or the protection of our great fleets, we must fend for ourselves,” said Aldaris.

“Aldaris is correct. As we have both seen, the Zerg will not halt their rampage until every last one of us is dead. I suggest that we retreat to our last functional warp gate and travel to where the Zerg cannot follow us,” said Zeratul.

Aldaris was about to protest, but Sweetie caught on to that quickly and sent Aldaris a glare that made him back down.

“I know of a place where we can find solace,” Zeratul continued. “It is Shakuras, the secret homeworld of my people, the Dark Templar.”

“Your people? We would be seen as tyrants to them! Why would they shelter us?” Aldaris asked.

“Not all beings are as unforgiving as your lamented Conclave, Aldaris,” Zeratul countered.

“Alright, Zeratul, Lyra and I shall find passage to the warp gate and secure it,” Sweetie said. “The rest of you will gather and lead the survivors through the warp gate to Shakuras.”

“Headin’ anywhere’s gotta be better than stayin’ here with the Zerg,” Raynor commented.

With that, Raynor and the Khalai Protoss left to gather the survivors, while Zeratul, Sweetie and Lyra engaged their stealth abilities and proceeded to enter a long canyon with a moderate force of Zealots and Dragoons.

Sweetie and the Dragoons shot down any Zerg Overlords that came looking for them, allowing the stealth trio to attack an area that contained a Creep Colony and three Nydus Canals that served to transport Zerg through them.

Along the way, they come across a number of burning or critically damaged Protoss buildings. Some of them fell apart and collapsed.

The next infested area the group came across had a Sunken Colony and several more Nydus Canals. Sweetie, Lyra and Zeratul quickly disposed of the Colony and tore through the Canals.

A pair of Zealots charged past the group while inviting them to join the battle happening up ahead. A large number of Zealots engaged a large number of Zerglings and Hydralisks. Sweetie and Lyra assisted the Zealots by unleashing a Psionic Storm on the Zerg. With the pressure on them reduced, the Zealots and Zeratul attack the canals and Creep Colony in the area.

Further ahead, the group assists a pair of Zealots attacking a Nydus Canal. Moving north, they also take care of a series of Spore Colonies and Sunken Colonies, dealing with any lurking Overlords as they come. Sweetie noticed an unusually placed Ultralisk Cavern that was guarded by a pair of Ultralisks. Quickly dealing with a nearby Spore Colony, the stealth trio cut down the pair of behemoths and then proceeded to level the cavern, which Sweetie still considered weird to be placed away from a base. Before Sweetie could ask, the Overmind responded.

~”Don’t ask.”~

The group encountered a group of Zealots attacking an Ultralisk and holding their own. They moved in to assist and added a few more to their group. Another Ultralisk was ahead along with a Spore Colony and another weirdly placed Ultralisk Cavern, all of which were overwhelmed by the Protoss warriors.

The warriors soon found the last of the warriors in the province: Zealots, Dragoons, an Archon and a pair of High Templars, one of whom told them about the location of the warp gate and the sizeable Zerg force blocking the way to it.

The small army fought their way through more Zerg. A series of Colonies were guarded by a decent number of Zerglings and Hydralisks but were quickly dealt with. There was little left to challenge the Protoss on the way to the warp gate.

Upon reaching the structure, Zeratul sent a message Raynor and the Khalai survivors about the warp gate’s location.

A number of Zerg popped up from the ground to attack the Protoss around the warp gate. Fenix and Raynor arrive with a moderate force to assist with the evacuation while everyone else heads into the warp gate.

Sweetie and Lyra couldn’t help but wonder what Shakuras would be like as they entered the warp gate.

Stand: Shakuras

Sweetie and Lyra emerged from the warp gate and took a look around their newest refuge. The area around them was almost devoid of vegetation. The land was an ebony colored desert and the sky was in a state of twilight with no clear distinction between night and day. There were also the bones of long dead creatures scattered across the landscape.

There was some indigenous life around so there was enough vegetation to support some wildlife at least. Unfortunately, if Lyra and Sweetie started running low on food, they would have to scavenge hard for it. The two of them resolved to not stay on Shakuras for too long.

“Remind me again how the Dark Templar live here?” Sweetie asked Lyra.

“Protoss don’t need to sustain themselves on food and live on sunlight and moonlight,” Lyra explained. “The dark atmosphere also seems appropriate for their kind.”

“I see…” Sweetie shrugged.

Protoss continued to emerge from the warp gate. Many of the survivors were concerned for their futures. Some were concerned about the lack of light, others still were hoping for the Zerg to come to them so they could avenge their friends. One thing was certain, their lives have been drastically changed.

Artanis, Tassadar and Aldaris were inspecting the area around them with different thoughts. Tassadar was hopeful of the future where the Khalai and the Nerazim will unite in arms. Artanis was more concerned for the well being of the survivors. Aldaris, however, was frustrated that the situation had spiraled so badly that they were forced to retreat to the planet of heretics. Sweetie took notice of Aldaris’ frustration but said nothing because they had more important matters to deal with.

The first thing they needed to do was to establish a base camp and provide shelter for the survivors. Thankfully, a number of Probes made it through the warp gate so they had the means of establishing a base camp.

Lyra was hopeful that the Dark Templar would show up soon to provide assistance to the survivors. Zeratul reassured Lyra that the Dark Templar have likely picked up on their signal by now and were on their way.

Artanis was concerned for the safety of Fenix and Raynor. Sweetie reassures him that Raynor is very resourceful and would be a difficult person to corner. “You should also have more faith in your old friend,” Sweetie added. Artanis felt a little silly for doubting Fenix’s survivability.

The Ponies and Protoss leadership led the survivors away from the warp gate and across the dunes of Shakuras. The journey was rough for some and the Khalai were not equipped for the desert environment.
Shortly after the survivors left the warp gate, Zerg began emerging from the structure in large numbers. Zerglings and Hydralisks secured the gate while Drones emerged and sought a location to build a hive cluster on Shakuras.

The survivors continued exploring the area, seeking a place to build a more permanent settlement. Suddenly, a small scouting group of Zerglings intercepted the Protoss. Lyra reacted quickly and sliced the Zerglings in half, staining the sand red.

Artanis became concerned that the Zerg had taken control of the warp gate. This served to motivate the survivors to quickly establish themselves before the Zerg came looking for them in larger numbers.

A minor distance later, Sweetie spots a proper area to establish themselves. The Probes go to work warping in structures for the populace to take shelter.

Before they could fully secure the area, however, a large number of Hydralisks charged toward the encampment. Sweetie knew that they would be hard pressed to handle so many. She shot a few Hydralisks in the head while Lyra and Zeratul dismembered and stabbed a few of them in the head. Aldaris and Tassadar unleashed Psionic Storms on a few and Artanis fought valiantly against the Zerg.

Thankfully, reinforcements came in the form of shadowy assailants that quickly cut down the remaining Hydralisks. One of the Dark Templar approached Zeratul to welcome him back home: “Adun Toridas, Zeratul! Glad I am to see that you’ve returned home after these many decades. But the strange guests that have followed you here seem ill-tempered.”

“Well met, my brother!” Zeratul responded. “Indeed, these creatures known as the Zerg have no regard for the sanctity of life. Once we have secured this area, I shall tell you everything I know about them in council.”

“I am sure the Matriarch will be eager to hear your tale as well,” said the Dark Templar.

“I would also like to introduce our new brother and sister,” Zeratul said. He motioned toward Tassadar and Lyra. “Our new brother is called Tassadar, while our new sister is called Lyra Heartstrings, or Lyra as she prefers. Both of them have learned to wield our own energies alongside the energies of the Khala. They have proven quite capable in the recent times and have also taken the Shadow Walk.”

“The Matriarch will be happy to meet them soon.”

With that, the Dark Templar started guarding the area. Artanis received a transmission from Fenix and Raynor that mentioned them trying to retake the warp gate on Aiur. Sweetie figured that this meant that they needed to deal with the nearby Zerg invaders to secure the warp gate on the Shakuras side.

While Artanis was marshalling forces to engage the Zerg neighbors, Lyra, Sweetie and the Dark Templar went on a preemptive strike on a few Zerg Sunken Colonies. There were no Overlords in the area so they were easily able to handle a few Colonies. Spotting burrowed Zerg, Sweetie directed Lyra and the two unleashed a few Psionic Storms around them which resulted in a few smoking holes in the area.

A few Zealots joined the fray and drew the fire from a Sunken Colony that was near a Spore Colony that would have detected the cloaked warriors.

At the end of the path was more resources for them to use. Communicating with Artanis, he sent a probe to establish a Nexus and began establishing a defense to protect the area from attack. Sweetie and Lyra protected the outpost until it was able to hold its own without them.

Some Dragoons have joined them in their hunt for Zerg. The need for them was immediate as the area in front of the warp gate was guarded by a pair of Sunken Colonies and a harmless Creep Colony. There was also an Overlord watching the area which was shot down by the Dragoons.

While the warp gate was still active, there was still no sign of Fenix or Raynor. Sweetie would rather shut down the gate to stem any Zerg reinforcements, but she would also prefer to wait for the two of them to communicate again before making that decision.

Moving past the gate, the group headed across a bridge. Atop a slope leading to a plateau, the group encounters a series of Sunken and Spore Colonies all along the top. There were also a few Hydralisks guarding the Colonies. A few Zealots and Dragoons were impaled on the tentacles of the Sunken Colonies while an unfortunate Dark Templar met his end as well. Mutalisks began scrambling to defend the hive cluster that was ahead. In response, Artanis sent a number of Scouts to counter the Zerg flyers.

The group descended the slope ahead of them and into the main perimeter of the hive cluster. They were met with heavy resistance and some of the Zerg started descending from the same slope that they had just descended. “I can’t believe that I made such a rookie mistake,” Sweetie thought.

~”It is a common tactic for Zerg to lie in wait until their prey moves past them to emerge and attack while their backs are exposed.”~

Sweetie ignored the Overmind’s commentary and focused on the battle. She started by coordinating with the Dragoons and Scouts to shoot down the Mutalisks and Overlords, the latter to give the stealth members some breathing room to deal with the Zerg behind them without concern for retaliation.

A series of Protoss Shuttles flew in nearby and dropped off a few Reavers to assist in the operation.

With the arrival of their new robotic companions, the Protoss forces quickly pushed back against the defending Zerg. The overwhelming force of Protoss proved too much for the forces protecting the hive cluster to handle. The Zerg in the area were soon wiped out.

Before the Protoss began celebrating, Artanis received a transmission from Raynor from the other side of the warp gate: “Artanis, my crew and I will remain here on Aiur and shut down the gate from this side. It’s the only way to make sure that the Zerg wont send more reinforcements to Shakuras.”

“You will be hopelessly outnumbered, and once the gate is shut down, there will be no one to save you should you be overrun” Artanis responded.

“Yeah, well...I’m a man of action. What can I say?” said Raynor. “Take care of Sweetie for now. I’ll send some supplies for her and Lyra to last them a few weeks. Should be able to get to Shakuras by then.”

“I shall remain with Raynor as well. My duty is to Aiur after all,” said Fenix.

“Farewell then, brave warriors. We will send through all the troops we can spare,” said Artanis.

Raynor thanked Artanis for the support before ending the transmission.

Sweetie was at least glad that Raynor was looking out for her and Lyra. She could only sigh as she just had to team up with a race of sunlight eaters.

Stand: The Xel'naga Temple

Having secured the immediate area around the warp gate to Aiur, Sweetie and Lyra returned to the settlement to plan their next move with the others. The Dark Templar appeared impressed with Lyra’s skills. Sweetie couldn’t help but feel a little jealous of the attention that her marefriend was getting. She quickly suppressed those thoughts and chose to be proud of her instead.

Sweetie was carrying the two crates that were left in front of the warp gate with moderate effort. Sweetie was impressed with how her suit could enhance the strength of her already formidable earth pony strength.

On the way, Sweetie received images from the Overmind, apparently upholding its end of the bargain. It showed her the means and the feeling of asserting her will on another. Sweetie did her best to not show her diverted focus to the others. She knew that in order to know that the knowledge stuck, she would need to test this ability.

As luck would have it, a pair of Zerglings decided to ambush her and her group from underground. Noticing the opportunity, Sweetie put the crates on the ground and remembered the feeling of controlling a mind. She focused her mind to try and replicate that feeling and to her surprise, one of the Zerglings, the one she was focused on, stopped advancing toward her.

The other Zergling slowed its pace and looked back at its partner. The next thing it knew, its partner charged into it and started sinking its teeth and claws into its chitin and tearing it apart. The victimized Zergling soon fell limp and stopped moving. The offending Zergling removed its teeth and claws from the corpse and stared at Sweetie, as if awaiting its next order.

~”It would not be in your best interest to maintain control of the Zergling with your current level of power.”~

“And here I thought I could surprise Lyra with a new pet.” Sweetie joked to the Overmind.

With a mental command, Sweetie ordered the Zergling to jump off a nearby cliff and fall to its doom. The Zergling obeyed the command and jumped without hesitation. A few seconds later, Sweetie could feel the link to the creature being severed when it failed to survive the jump.

Lyra was surprised by what she saw. Everyone who was around them were surprised by what they saw, everyone except Sweetie. Lyra took notice of her neutral expression and had to ask her: “Did you do that?”

Sweetie took a moment to calm herself from the rush of controlling a mind. She was beginning to wonder if this was how Queen Chrysalis felt when she controlled her changelings. She picked up the crates again and looked towards Lyra to respond: “Yeah, I was experimenting with my psionic power and I wanted to see if I could control that Zergling.” She conveniently omitted any part about the Overmind teaching her the ability.
A thought popped into Sweetie’s head and decided to ask the Overmind: “Did you know about the Dark Templar settlement on Shakuras?”

~”When Zeratul murdered Zaaz, the Cerebrate that was killed shortly after Kerrigan’s assimilation into the Swarm, his mind touched with mine. I learned about Aiur’s location from him. I was obsessed with completing my design on Aiur while ignoring any potentially relevant information. Amon was not aware that the Protoss could wield void energies at the time of my creation and the exile of the Dark Templar occurred after his demise. Thus, at the time, any information related to Shakuras was of no interest to me.”~

Sweetie couldn’t blame Amon for not anticipating the potential capabilities of the Protoss due to the unpredictability that free will brings. She also knew that she would have to tell Lyra about the parasite in her head at some point. She could always trust her with a secret.

The journey back to the settlement was nearly uneventful as Sweetie continued exercising her mind control ability, this time on a Hydralisk, to equally satisfactory results.

The returning warriors were met with the Protoss leaders, who congratulated them for clearing out the nearby Zerg infestation. Lyra ended up telling Tassadar and Zeratul about Sweetie’s new ability, which surprised the two of them. Zeratul was the first to speak: “There are a few types of beings that I know of that can control Zerg. One is the Overmind, another is a Cerebrate, another is the Queen of Blades, and the last are Dark Archons, to a lesser extent.”

“Dark Archons?” Lyra asked.

“You did not think that only High Templar could merge to become Archons, did you?” Zeratul asked rhetorically. “Should the dire need arise, all Dark Templar can merge to become Dark Archons. Though, we sacrifice our warriors in doing so. Dark Archons were once used to spread fear across any battlefield. The terrifying might of the Dark Archons drove us to outlaw their creation.”

One of the Zealots pointed in the direction of a number of Shuttles heading in their direction. Upon arrival, a number of Dark Templar emerged from the Shuttles in a way that showed that they were escorting a VIP.

The group was soon greeted by an elderly, whom Sweetie and Lyra could only guess was elderly, female Protoss. She introduced herself as Raszagal, Matriarch of the Dark Templar. She showed that she was very welcoming toward the refugees.

Sweetie could sense something familiar about the Matriarch, even though they had never met. Whatever Sweetie was sensing felt...wrong. She couldn’t put her finger on it but something was wrong with the elderly Protoss. She decided to let it lie for now and continue listening to the Matriarch speaking with the Khalai.

“Zeratul has informed me of the fall of Aiur, and I am deeply grieved. I am one of the few Dark Templar old enough to remember our ancestral home with clarity. Yet, no matter how tragic the circumstances, it is clear that fortune has reunited our people.

“We Dark Templar will never forget our banishment from Aiur, nor the Conclave’s sins against us. But you and your companions are no longer of the Conclave. The examples set by Tassadar and Lyra have shown you that when the light and dark sides of our energies are united, our power is undeniable.”

Aldaris countered by saying that the Zerg are an unprecedented threat. Raszagal mentions a dormant power nearby that could scour the Zerg from Shakuras in the form of a structure: an ancient Xel’naga Temple that was situated above a nexus of powerful cosmic energies.

Something about that filled Sweetie with concern. If this nexus of cosmic energies were to fall into the wrong hands, there’s no telling what may happen. Someone may even try to use the temple to blow up the planet if the nexus is as powerful as she fears.

While Aldaris was gung ho about using the temple, Raszagal quickly shot that idea down, saying they needed a pair of lost crystals called the Uraj and Khalis. The Uraj was laced with psionic energies like the kind the High Templar use while the Khalis was laced with void energies. Both crystals needed to be found and used in unison to activate the temple.

Before the search for the crystals could begin, however, Raszagal suggested clearing the grounds around the temple of two Cerebrates that were nesting there.

A forward base was established on an island next to the larger island where the temple and a decently-sized Zerg hive cluster was. The defenses around the island were formidable and prevented most air attacks from getting through without much loss.

Zeratul had an idea on how to bypass those defenses by deploying ships that were in the same class as Scouts called Corsairs. These ships used the pilot’s power to generate Disruption Webs that disrupted any neural impulses and computer guidance systems. Since Spore Colonies needed a brain to function, the web worked on them. The downside of these ships, however, was their lack of ground attack.

A group of accompanying Dragoons assisted with cleaning up an island that had a few Spore and Sunken Colonies. The Dragoons took care not to walk into the Disruption Web since the effect was indiscriminate. The island was soon cleared and more resources were available for the Protoss to gather.

The Zerg were quite aggressive. Their attacks were frequent and they kept the pressure on the Protoss. Artanis ordered an outpost to be constructed near the untapped resources. The outpost became the target of heavy Zerg aggression, which took pressure off the main base.

Lyra defended the outpost by cutting down every invading Zergling and Hydralisk while Sweetie shot down Mutalisks.

To get to the infested island, Artanis ordered the construction of a number of Shuttles to transport Lyra, Sweetie, and any troops that would accompany them. A number of Zealots, Dragoons who were fewer since their large frames took up half the available space on a Shuttle, as well as a number of Dark Templar.

The Corsairs’ Disruption Web easily opened the way for the Shuttles to safely drop their cargo on the Xel’naga Temple island. Lyra tore apart a few Spore Colonies while Sweetie coordinated with the Dragoons to shoot down Mutalisks, Overlords as well as pesky Queens. Zerglings and Hydralisks were dismembered by Zealot blades while Dark Templar took advantage of the chaos to attack Zerg that didn’t have a Spore Colony or Overlord in the area to sense their presence.

Soon, the Cerebrates’ positions were compromised and vulnerable. Lyra worked together with the Dark Templar to cut down the helpless overgrown larvae. Conveniently, after the Zerg became docile from the loss of the Cerebrates, a lone Overlord hovered over the island and deposited the last person that Sweetie and Lyra ever thought would show up on Shakuras, Kerrigan.

“Well done, mighty Protoss,” Kerrigan said mockingly. “I’m glad to see that you all are as violent as ever.”

“What are you doing here?” Lyra asked warily.

Kerrigan glared at Lyra for a moment. She would not forget her humiliation on Char so easily. She continued in a nonchalant tone, “I’ve simply come to assist you in eliminating the renegade Zerg.”

Maintaining her mental defenses, Sweetie communicated with the Overmind: “This is the one who is supposed to save the universe? The one I’m supposed to protect until she saves the Zerg from enslavement?”

~“As I have mentioned, her personality has been altered by Amon since he cannot control her. It is likely that he intends to shape her into a villain that everyone will try to kill. You must ensure her safety until she is ready to stand up to Amon.”~

“That sounds like it could be one of the most difficult missions of my life, given the odds of success right now.”

“I bring news of an event that threatens us all. If you’d be so good as to escort me to your Citadel, I’ll tell you everything I know,” Kerrigan continued.

Raszagal acquiesced to Kerrigan’s request and warned her that they would not suffer her treachery.

Sweetie and Lyra returned to the settlement with the Queen of Blades, Sweetie groaning inwardly about how much of a hassle it would be to protect her in the future.

Stand: Uraj

The Protoss and Ponies escorted Kerrigan to the Khalai settlement, New Antioch, to gather whatever important information that the infested human knew. Sweetie and Aldaris continued looking at Kerrigan with great suspicion. Sweetie knew about Kerrigan’s twisted personality, thanks to the Overmind, and figured that at some point in this venture, she was going to betray them.

Sweetie had a conversation with the Overmind on the way back to New Antioch. “Does she even know that she’s supposed to save the Zerg from Amon?”

~”She does not. For her to know of her destiny at this juncture would risk Amon finding out about my plans too soon. He may be dead, but he can still act through his servants. There is at least one that he acts through. I do not know of the servant’s identity, nor do I know if there is more than one, for they are crafty and change their name whenever it suits them. I also do not know how to identify them.~

“Is there some way to undo the alterations to her personality?”

~”Nothing short of removing the Zerg mutagen coursing through her, I’m afraid. Not even I am capable of doing that even with my full power. The mark of Amon exists in the mutagen itself.”~

“I see…” Sweetie figured that fixing Kerrigan’s mind would not be easy. “Do you know of any way to reverse the infestation?”

~”None that I know of. The mutagen adapts to any attempts to cure it through any means that the Terrans are capable of. The Protoss know too little of the Zerg to hope for a successful attempt to reverse the infestation, they would rather put them out of their misery. If there is anything that could undo the transformation, it would be something of Xel’naga origin.”~

“So basically, I would need to scour the universe for something that could save her...great…” For a moment, she had considered seeing if the temple could reverse the infestation, but the Overmind quickly shot it down since the temple would obliterate Zerg and she needed something that could drain the power from Kerrigan.

Soon after arriving at New Antioch, Raszagal turned her attention to Kerrigan and spoke: “Now then, you had best explain yourself. What is this news you’ve come to give?”

“There is a new Overmind growing on Char,” Kerrigan stated.

Everyone’s reactions were a mixture of disbelief and surprise. Sweetie asked the Overmind if it was possible to recreate it body.

~”It is possible to merge a number of Cerebrates to recreate my body and ability to control Zerg. However, they cannot replicate my knowledge and experience...not without me. And I am not going back to that prison. Through you, I have felt more freedom than I have ever felt. I may have no control over you, but you are far more preferable compared to my previous conditions.”~

Kerrigan started telling lies about how the Overmind controlled her and that she was back to her old self mentally. Sweetie knew better than to believe anything she said. Aldaris made an outburst to call Kerrigan on her lies, but was silenced by Raszagal.

Sweetie had a plan, and this plan involved Aldaris. She walked up to him and spoke: “Aldaris, could you come with me? We need to have a chat,” saying the last part in a way that caused everyone that knew of her ‘chats’ to look away. Kerrigan and Raszagal looked at everyone with confusion. A brief mind reading gave Kerrigan a small understanding of why they behaved that way.

Aldaris followed Sweetie to a secluded room in the citadel. Once the doors shut behind them, Sweetie cast a privacy spell on the room to prevent any information from getting out. Aldaris was the first to speak: “Can you not see that she is--” Aldaris was interrupted when Sweetie raised her hand to him.

“I know, and I’m in full agreement with you on this,” Sweetie said.

Aldaris blinked. He took a few moments to register what Sweetie just said. She continued, “We also can’t just openly call her out on her lies. No offense, but you’re not very popular around here because of your dedication to the Conclave. There’s also something wrong with Raszagal, but I can’t confirm anything yet. Kerrigan may already have a scheme in motion, but we may also need her assistance in retrieving the Uraj and Khalis. We will play along for now but maintain our vigil until she is ready to strike at us. Meanwhile, I want you to investigate Raszagal, see if you can find something out while we are away.”

Aldaris took a moment to consider Sweetie’s proposal. “Very well, I pray that your plan succeeds.”

Sweetie nodded then undid the privacy spell before leaving the room and rejoining the others. She asked for a summary of what was explained while she and Aldaris were away.

She learned that Daggoth, a Cerebrate who was leading the renegade Swarm after the Overmind’s demise, commanded many of the renegade Cerebrates to merge into a fledgling Overmind. However, it can’t control the Swarm yet.

The Overmind in Sweetie’s head assured her that even if the infant Overmind reaches maturity, the creature would need years to become an actual threat to the Protoss.

Zeratul stated their intent to find the Uraj and Khalis crystals took precedence over dealing with the new Overmind. Kerrigan offered her services in retrieving the crystals, just as Sweetie figured she would. Raszagal encouraged everyone to allow Kerrigan to assist them.

Sweetie considered Raszagal’s trust to be given a little too easily, especially from a Protoss that supposedly only met Kerrigan today. Putting her suspicions on hold for the time being, Sweetie began assisting everyone with tracking the twin crystals.

Soon, Tassadar and Artanis locate the Uraj crystal. It was located on the planet Braxis, an arctic type planet that, according to Zeratul, used to host a Protoss colony called Khyrador until powerful psionic storms rocked the planet and forced the colonists to evacuate. A few centuries later, the Confederacy claimed the planet and named it Braxis. The Dominion claimed the planet after the fall of the Confederacy. To this day, the Uraj crystal is under guard by a Dominion force.

Upon arrival at the planet Braxis, the sensors picked up a lone Battlecruiser. Sweetie decided to check the emblem that is painted on all Battlecruisers to declare what Terran faction owns it. What Sweetie found unusual was that the emblem did not belong to the Dominion, in fact, it didn’t belong to any known Terran faction.

The usual Dominion emblem was a crimson hexagon with a black chevron inside and a black star above the chevron. This emblem was a crimson triangle pointed downward surrounded by three smaller, stretched triangles. Inside the main triangle was a golden picture of some kind of bird perched on a planet with a gold star above the bird and the star between two golden lightning bolts.

Whatever faction the ship belonged to, Sweetie had a feeling that they needed to act fast.

Sweetie and Lyra boarded a Shuttle to the surface alongside Kerrigan. Sweetie kept a wary eye on Kerrigan while Lyra was more focused on the thought of killing Terrans. Sweetie had a feeling that Lyra was still apprehensive about killing Terrans and Protoss so she put a hand on her shoulder to reassure her that everything will be alright. Kerrigan saw the display and scoffed in amusement, which earned her a glare from Sweetie.

The Ponies and Infested Human disembarked into a Dominion Base that was being blasted by a group of Dragoons and Reavers. It wasn’t long before the land was cleared out and a group of Probes were able to build their base over the ruins.

During the rebuilding, Artanis mentioned an issue with the warp matrix and that they would be unable to warp in fighter ships for the operation. Sweetie saw no problem with this since their ground forces would be more than enough to handle the Dominion.

The Dominion took notice of their presence and started sending groups of Marines, Firebats, Goliaths, Wraiths and the occasional Siege Tank. The Terrans were not difficult to handle, especially since the Siege Tanks rarely considered activating their siege modes, the reason that the vehicles were dangerous in the first place.

Kerrigan, Lyra and Sweetie took a group of Dark Templar into a nearby Dominion base to deal with them. The lack of Missile Turrets made the attack simple. Things only got slightly complicated when another Dominion base that was closer to the crystal was equipped with a Comsat Station, which scanned the area that the Protoss were attacking. The Dominion forces retaliated thanks to the scan, but were still overwhelmed by the blades, claws and shots from their attackers.

Deciding not to push the initiative, Sweetie had everyone stay back until they got reinforcements. Kerrigan was itching to push further, but Sweetie gave her a look that said, ‘Obey my orders or you’re on your own.’

Everyone waited until reinforcements came in the form of a number of Zealots, Dragoons and a few Archons. With the new reinforcements, Sweetie ordered the army to push forward. Sweetie was right to hold back earlier since the area to the south of them had a significant number of Missile Turrets and Sweetie was not liking the odds of a stealth group running into a hailstorm of bullets.

Sweetie’s forces pushed their way into the heavily defended Dominion base, laying waste to the soldiers who give their lives for their Emperor. Every now and then, a Goliath or Siege Tank got locked down by Sweetie before they were blown up.

When the path to the Uraj Crystal was cleared, a Probe was sent to pick it up so they could get away from the planet fast.

Two things crossed Sweetie’s thoughts: ‘Why was the Dominion protecting a crystal that they couldn’t do anything with’, and that if they didn’t get away from Braxis soon, they were going to have a tough time getting away from the planet.

Stand: United Earth Directorate

A Shuttle flew above the secured Uraj crystal and deployed a Probe that immediately collected the crystal and returned to the Shuttle. Sweetie, Kerrigan and Lyra watched the Shuttle fly back to base.

With the crystal secure, the trio began the return trip as well, only to have Dominion reinforcements get in their way. Not wasting any time, Lyra shadow-stepped behind the troops and cleaved them in half. Goliath pilots were not spared the aquamarine mare’s wrath as she sliced their mechs down the middle.

Kerrigan unleashed a Psionic Storm on a group of Marines before jumping onto a Siege Tank and driving her claws into the chassis and pulled the driver’s head from the hole.

Sweetie knew that they had no time to be messing around with the Dominion because she had a feeling that their efforts were about to be impeded by something but she didn’t know what exactly. She orders Lyra and Kerrigan to leave the rest of the Terrans alone and retreat to base as fast as they could.

At the base, the Protoss were packing up their equipment as fast as they could, as per Sweetie’s request. Everyone boarded a Shuttle and made their way back to the Gantrithor.

Unfortunately, during their attempt to escape, they discovered a large number of ships in orbit around Braxis, as well as an orbital platform designed to prevent ships from escaping. Sweetie soon identified the ships as the same unknown faction that she discovered earlier. She cursed under her breath for taking too long.

A transmission was being received from the command ship of the mysterious Terran fleet known as the ‘Aleksander.’ <”Protoss Commander, I am Vice Admiral Alexei Stukov of the United Earth Directorate. We are here to take control of the Terran Dominion and all of its outlying colonies. You are in direct violation of Terran space and have openly attacked Terran troops. Lower your shields and power down your weapons systems. The UED will be taking possession of your ships and whatever spoils you have garnered from this planet.”> The transmission ended there.

“United Earth Directorate?” Zeratul mused. “Raynor spoke of the distant Terran homeworld called Earth. These humans have some a long way to make war on us.”

Before Artanis responded, Sweetie spoke first, “These guys are going to be trouble, I just know it. They have no idea what they are up against and that makes them all the more dangerous. Right now, we need to find a way around the blockade or through it. We can’t allow the UED to get their hands on the Uraj.”

“Agreed,” Artanis said. “Let us scout ahead of our fleet and find an opening. Zeratul, keep sending in reinforcements when you can.” Zeratul nodded.

By analyzing the UED orbital platform, Sweetie learned that there were a vast number of Missile Turrets on the platform while the platform itself shouldn’t have enough power to support so many. Further analysis led Sweetie to discover a number of large structures that were scattered across the platform. The structures each looked like a pair of towers with turbines at the top. UED troops were configured in a way that they were protecting the structures. Sweetie concluded that the structures may be some sort of power source for the Missile Turrets.

Looking at the nearest structure and the defenses near it, which Sweetie figured as some sort of generator, she figured that they could get away with attacking it with a few Zealots and Dragoons.

Clearing a miniature platform near the main platform, Artanis, Lyra and Sweetie designated the location for a staging area. Three Shuttles were prepared to carry the ground troops to the area of the first generator. A few Observers scouted ahead to find an opening that was completely unguarded. Sweetie couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed in the UED’s lack of attention to detail when preparing the platform’s defenses.

The Shuttles dropped off Sweetie, Lyra and the Protoss accompanying them. The group went after the Missile Turrets that they could simply walk up to in order to allow Artanis and his Scout escort to advance with the ground force unmolested, barely.

A pair of Bunkers was the next obstacle for the Protoss and Ponies. With Lyra and Sweetie outside of the nearest turret’s detection range, Sweetie snuck up to the first Bunker and started shooting into the holes in the structure, causing the heads of three Marines and a Firebat to explode.

Lyra took on the next Bunker by performing a Shadowstep into the Bunker and slashed the Marines and Firebats inside to pieces. Afterwards, she casually walked out of the Bunker with her shields painted red. She was a little shaken from what she did, but remained focused. Sweetie couldn’t help but smile at Lyra’s improvement in her battlefield mentality.

The generator was surrounded by four Missile Turrets. Since there was no real threat around them, the two of them each assaulted a generator turbine. Sweetie blasted her turbine in the most exposed areas while Lyra performed some fast maneuvers and slashed her turbine in a zigzag pattern.

The generator exploded and cut the power off from that section of the platform. Every missile turret in the area quickly went offline.

Artanis, deciding to go with Sweetie’s plan, requested a few Dark Templar and additional Dragoons for the next generator.

The staging platform was soon occupied with the requested troops along with two more Shuttles. Analyzing the updated situation with the Observers, Sweetie located a landing zone that was now guarded by inactive turrets.

With everyone at the new location, Sweetie, Lyra and the Dark Templar scouted ahead and found two more loaded Bunkers without sensory units nearby. The Bunkers were quickly cleared out without any resistance.

A lone Science Vessel decided to investigate too late as the Bunkers were already empty. Still, Sweetie was not having a Science Vessel cause problems for them down the road so she locked the ship down and concentrated her firepower with the Dragoons to bring down the hovering menace.

The way to the next generator, however, was not going to be as easy as the last. A wall of loaded Bunkers and Missile Turrets prevented any clever maneuvers from being made on them. She also spotted a number of Wraiths around the generator while a large number of turrets surrounded the outer perimeter.

Thankfully, Sweetie found another landing area that they could use near one of the emptied bunkers. The Shuttles transported everyone to the next site before the group started smashing turrets. A few Wraiths came to investigate, only to be helplessly shot down by Sweetie’s Lockdown and Dragoon fire. With a wide enough opening to the generator made, Artanis and his Scouts flew around to the area behind the generator and quickly dispatched the remaining Wraiths. Some Shuttles brought Sweetie and the Dragoons behind the generator where they safely shot holes in the power generator outside the range of the Bunker and turret wall. With the generator and turrets shut down, Lyra and the Dark Templar moved in and cleaned out the Bunkers.

Figuring that the next generator was going to be even more challenging, Sweetie had Artanis request even more Zealots, Dragoons and Dark Templar.

Deciding to attack the next generator from the right angle, Sweetie had everyone ferried to the southeastern side of the platform. Once again, Sweetie had the Observers scout ahead.

Up ahead was a set of turrets, two on two small, platforms inaccessible on foot and a pair of Bunkers not far ahead. Sweetie had the Dragoons blast the turrets from a distance before having Lyra and the Dark Templar engage the Bunkers.

Another Bunker ahead was just close enough to a turret that the Dark Templar would be spotted when they got close. Artanis decided to use brute force and tear open the Bunker with raw firepower which quickly overwhelmed the few defenders. Everyone after that smashed the eight turrets in the area to clear the way toward the next generator.

Sweetie had everyone ferried to the higher ground near the generator and just barely outside the range of a turret. The Dragoons made quick work of a Bunker next to the generator before blasting the generator itself, making the most of their ranged capabilities. It took a number of shots to get the job done but they had little issue in completing the task. The Zealots slashed apart any Goliaths that scrambled to defend the generator.

With the generator destroyed, Lyra, Sweetie and the Dark Templar went to work tearing apart the Goliaths, Bunkers, and Siege Tanks that were in the area before making their move against the next generator.

A shiver ran up Sweetie’s spine, as if something was telling her of a familiar, yet hidden danger associated with the next generator. She was wondering if something similar to Pinkie’s Pinkie Sense had awakened in her in addition to her psionic powers. Deciding not to question it, Sweetie had Artanis request the assistance of some High Templar along with a few more Observers. A preliminary observation showed a wall of Missile Turrets on an elevated platform guarded by a few Goliaths. The best way onto the platform would be near where the latest generator was destroyed. That entrance was heavily defended by Bunkers and Missile Turrets. She may have also identified a Siege Tank overlooking the area from the elevated platform. Sweetie knew that some serious firepower was needed to break through that defense so she had Artanis request a couple of loaded Reavers along with a couple more Dragoons for good measure.

The reinforcements soon linked up with the main force and Sweetie ordered the Reavers to deal with the Bunkers from far away. The Siege Tank decided to reposition itself to deal with the Reavers which was a huge mistake that cost the tank driver his life.

With the ammo inside the Reavers spent, the main force moved onto the elevated platform, wrecking turrets and Goliaths along the way. Observers went into the suspiciously wide open area and revealed a minefield. With the wall of turrets destroyed, Artanis and his Scouts moved in to blast a few of the Spider Mines before Sweetie had them pull back for a moment and had the High Templar move in and electrocute a Ghost guarding an isolated and elevated platform that the next generator was placed.

The Goliaths guarding the generator moved to investigate the dead Ghost only to have their systems fried by a series of Psionic Storms. The Siege Tanks, in their folly, decided to reposition themselves to investigate, only to have their systems locked down and blasted apart by Dragoons, who proceeded to blast a pair of nearby Missile Turrets. Two more Ghosts positioned at the corners of the platform were electrocuted before Lyra and Sweetie were ferried to the generator. Lyra zapped the last Ghost before the two of them took out the generator in the same manner as the first one.

Only one generator remained.

The UED was not playing around anymore with the last generator. An Observer managed to get close enough to find a small opening in a long wall of Missile Turrets along with a decent number of Bunkers, a few Battlecruisers and a few ships that nobody had seen before, likely something unique to the UED.

Sweetie had a feeling that this was going to turn into an aerial battle so she had Artanis order in a number of Scouts and Corsairs for the operation. An Arbiter was also called in for tactical assistance and a few Zealots were brought in for ground reinforcement.

There was little room for subtlety at this point. The Corsairs deployed a Disruption Web on two turrets near the landing zone before the exodus of Shuttles deployed everyone into the area. The Dragoons and Scouts blasted the turrets in the webs while everyone else rushed the defenses. The new ships attacked Artanis, the Scouts and the Corsairs by launching a barrage of rockets that were not very effective against shields. The ground support for the ships was quickly blown away, leaving the ships vulnerable to air and ground attacks. The Battlecruisers moved in to support, but they were quickly overwhelmed by the firepower of the Protoss.

The last defenses around the generator were partially cleared by Scouts, leaving the ground forces an opportunity to gather up before the Arbiter moved near the generator and performed a Mass Recall to summon the ground forces to it.

Given the honors, Sweetie and Lyra smashed the last generator and completely deactivated the defenses on the platform. The rest of the fleet flew past the orbital platform and through the blockade, while the Shuttles transported everyone back to the fleet.

Before the fleet began tracking the Khalis’ location, Sweetie made a request to everyone, “I’m worried that Aldaris might try something foolish while I’m away, so I’m heading back to Shakuras to check up on him.”

“Are you sure?,” Lyra asked. “We could really use your help in getting the Khalis.”

Sweetie smiled as she walked up to Lyra and the two embraced each other in a warm hug and a passionate kiss, before Sweetie broke away. “I think you can take charge of this mission,” Sweetie said.

“But-,” Lyra was interrupted when Sweetie put a finger to Lyra’s lips.

“Shush. You don’t give yourself enough credit. You know how the Protoss work by now so I know that you can help them better than I could. I’m more used to working with Terran troops anyway. While I’m starting to learn how to control Zerg,” Sweetie added the last part as a thought to herself. “I believe that you are very capable, both as a warrior and as a leader. I’ll see you soon.” Sweetie went to the nearest ship that will take her to Shakuras, leaving a smiling Lyra, who was determined to not let her marefriend down.

Stand: Khalis

Author's Note

Some or many of you are aware of the major plot hole associated with this mission. If not, I'll explain. Since you control Dark Templar for this mission and since the Overmind can be killed by Dark Templar, If this objective were accomplished this way in canon, then the premise of the end of the Iron Fist and much of the Queen of Blades campaigns become moot. Why would the Dark Templar only damage the Overmind when they had the chance to kill it?

This is pretty much my attempt to deal with the canon's plot hole.

Another chapter will be posted later since I didn't post one yesterday.

Stand: Khalis

Lyra was standing beside Tassadar, Zeratul and Artanis. Artanis, in particular was a bit irritated. “Does she not think that we can handle the operation without her? The nerve!,” he snapped.

Lyra decided that she needs to calm him before he might say or do something he might regret, “Sorry about that, Bon Bon has a tendency to take charge on missions, I think it has to do with her past life as an agent.”

“What does this have to do with her practically suggesting that you be in charge when she should not have any command authority in the first place?”

“Well, you did pretty much do everything she told you during the battle against the UED. You basically let her take the lead.”

Artanis considered his next words. If he had a mouth, it would be opening and closing several times.

Zeratul walked up to the two. “It matters not who is in charge, what matters is that we complete our objective. We must find the Khalis soon, for I fear that the renegade Zerg are growing in number exponentially as we speak.

Tassadar gave a small chuckle, “It would seem that Sweetie sees the same potential in Lyra as I do, perhaps even more so. Fear not, Artanis, Sweetie merely wishes to see that potential realized just as much as I do.”

“Very well, on to other matters. Zeratul, do you know of any possible locations where the Khalis might be?” Artanis asked.

“I remember sensing its energies on the planet Char, we must go there and retrieve it,” said Zeratul.

With that, the fleet set course for Char to find the Khalis.

Upon arriving over Char, Zeratul attempted to lock on the energies of the Khalis crystal once more. However, he also sensed a massive, fluctuating energy signature near the crystal’s location, which Kerrigan informed everyone was the new Overmind, who had decided to nest near the Khalis crystal’s location due to the energies emanating from it.

“There will likely be a number of Broods protecting the crystal and the Overmind,” Kerrigan said. “If we strike hard and fast, we might be able to fight our way through their defenses and escape with the crystal.

“Comrades, I may have an alternative,” Artanis spoke. “Seeing as how the Overmind is still in its infant stages, I wonder if we might be able to disrupt its control over those Broods. If we can do enough superficial damage to the creature, it might--”

Lyra, who had taken a look at the Zerg who were defending the area, had realized that any attempts for an assault against the Overmind would be infeasible at this point in time.

Close range scans have found the ground around the Overmind to be covered with countless Sunken and Spore Colonies. She saw more of those structures in one area than she had seen in any one place. The Colonies also appeared to be behaving unusually vigorous, as if they could take anything anyone could throw at them and still not die.

The areas between the colonies had unusually large holes while she spotted a rather large, unknown strain of Zerg that walked on numerous, sharp legs, using its large claws to burrow itself. When an unsuspecting critter got too close to the area, a row of spikes erupted from the ground and impaled the poor creature.

The skies around the Overmind were also well covered by a massive number of Mutalisks, Scourge and Guardians. There was also a new strain of Zerg flyer among them that looked somewhat like a Mutalisk, except bigger, bulkier, and possessing a thicker shell. Lyra had a feeling that new Zerg were designed to deal with ships.

Overall, there was no way of getting any forces close to the Overmind at this time. Lyra took this time to interrupt Artanis, “There is no way we’re getting anyone near the Overmind. I looked at the area around it and concluded that any attack on it is simply not worth the effort. Our only choice is to do a smash and grab for the crystal and pray the Zerg fliers stay near the Overmind.”

“My plan it is, then,” Kerrigan said. “I’ll be able to exert limited control over a few of the Zerg and provide you with some backup. But the longer we stay, the more we risk losing both the crystals again.

After scouting around for potential landing zones for their base of operations, Artanis found one that was next to a small Zerg base. Setting a few Probes near the landing site, they went to work establishing a base. For extra protection, a small group of Zealots, Dragoons and Dark Templar were sent to defend the base in its initial stages. Kerrigan used her ability to control Zerg and took control of the nearby Zerg hive cluster. Lyra and Tassadar arrived at their base soon after.

The Protoss were pressed by moderate attack groups of Zerglings and Hydralisks early on, which gave the Protoss difficulty in setting up an effective defense. Lyra, feeling adventurous, called a Psionic Storm on herself where the lightning hit her horn and, strangely enough, charged her body temporarily. With a grin, she charged past the attacking Zerg and caused an area of Psionic lightning to spread around her as she charged forward and electrocuted the Zerg. Needless to say, Tassadar was quite impressed with the new attack that Lyra discovered.

Lyra kept the Zerg off the defensive emplacements by mercilessly cutting them down. Every now and then, one or more of the large, multi-legged Zerg paid a visit to the base, only for Lyra to dismember and decapitate the creature before it attempted to burrow. Kerrigan called the creature that Lyra brutally slaughtered a Lurker. The creatures were helpless above ground and dangerous while underground. When Lyra asked about the bulkier versions of the Mutalisks, Kerrigan told her that they were called Devourers, fliers that hurl corrosive acid at ships and weakens them offensively and defensively.

Lyra also assisted Kerrigan by defending her base while she set up a number of Sunken and Spore Colonies to defend her base. At the same time, Kerrigan morphed her larvae into Zerglings and Hydralisks to contribute to the attack force trained to rush their way toward the crystal.

Artanis sent a number of Zealots, Dragoons and Dark Templar to back up Kerrigan’s group. Some High Templar also sacrificed themselves to unleash the might of Archons against the enemy Zerg.

Lyra, who led the charge, advanced with the group into the canyon where the crystal lied at the end. A number of Overlords and Observers remained slightly behind the group to keep a watch for burrowed Zerg, especially Lurkers.

The first part of their journey was obstructed by a pair of Sunken Colonies and a few Zerg. Lyra dealt with the Sunken Colonies and left the Zerg to the rest.

The path was treacherous since there were a massive number of Spore Colonies and Scourge to make life miserable for the Overlords and Observers. Thankfully, Artanis reinforced the group by having Carriers pick off the Spore Colonies while confusing them on what to shoot; the Carriers or the Interceptors that were deployed. At that point, Lyra thought the Spore Colonies were not very intelligent if they could not choose the obvious target.

The attack force continued to push through the Zerg resistance while a lone Probe followed the group from far behind.

Surprisingly, the Brood guarding the crystal actually didn’t have Lurkers protecting the crystal, meaning that their run for the crystal was much easier. The Carriers still bombarded the Spore Colonies above the canyon while the Protoss and Zerg force plowed their way to the crystal.

Seeing its chance, the lone Probe made a run for the Khalis before grabbing it and rushing back to base. Everyone followed the Probe’s example soon after. Shuttles from the fleet collected the Protoss forces while Kerrigan had her Overlords collect a number of her new Zerg for the trip back to Shakuras.

Meanwhile…

Sweetie had arrived at New Antioch on Shakuras. She found Aldaris waiting for her once she disembarked. Exchanging silent greetings, Sweetie led Aldaris to a private room, put up a privacy spell, and got down to business.

“Alright, what did you find out?” Sweetie asked.

“You were right, there is something wrong with the Matriarch. I suspect that the Queen of Blades has something to do with this.”

“Find any evidence to support this?”

“I asked a number of the Dark Ones about the Matriarch’s normal behavior. I had a conversation with her and discovered a few inconsistencies between her attitude and her supposed normal behavior.”

Sweetie suspected that Kerrigan might be controlling Raszagal, but was unsure on a few points. She decided to ask a few more questions. “How well can a Protoss resist the influence of another mind?”

“Normally, we cannot be controlled by others. However, as we age we also lose some of that resistance. The Matriarch may have been a prime target for the Queen of Blades due to her age as she is currently forty-five years over the average lifespan of a Protoss which is one thousand years.”

“So, we have a Matriarch that is likely being manipulated by Kerrigan who is playing the role of the Overmind’s victim to fool everyone into thinking that she’s not planning something evil. We need to expose her before her true nature rears its ugly head,” Sweetie thought.

“Okay, I have a plan to expose the Queen of Blades for who she is to everyone. I’m gonna need you to be the bait,” Sweetie said.

“Expose? Why not just kill her when we get the chance? Surely you realize that she cannot be saved.”

“Trust me on this, she is far too important to everyone’s future to let die. I can’t tell you why yet, just know that the future of the Universe depends on keeping the bitch alive.”

Aldaris stared at Sweetie for a full minute before he relented, “Very well, what is your plan?”

“You are going to start an insurrection…”

Stand: Insurrection

The fleet, with a few of Kerrigan’s Overlords in tow, arrive in orbit over Shakuras. However, the ships that were waiting for their arrival still had their weapons powered up and aiming at the fleet. Tassadar tried to hail them, but that was only met with a warning shot that hit the shields of the Gantrithor.

Tassadar tried again to hail the offending ships.

Another shot hits their shields.

Tassadar was still confused about why the ships were keeping them away from Shakuras. The Zerg threat on the surface was growing by the second and someone on Shakuras was keeping them from saving their race from annihilation.

At this moment, Lyra was concerned that something had happened to Sweetie. She didn’t want to believe that someone on Shakuras had captured her marefriend or worse.

Tassadar had enough with negotiating with the ships and ordered the fleet to charge their weapons. As the fleet was about to fire on the ships, an Arbiter performed a Mass Recall to return the blockade ships to the planet’s surface.

Still confused about what just happened, Tassadar, Artanis and Lyra could only look at each other, trying desperately to find some kind of answer that would help the situation make sense of what just happened.

Unable to find any answer, the fleet returned to its course to New Antioch, hoping to find some answers there.

Tassadar, Lyra, Artanis and Zeratul disembarked from the Gantrithor to find themselves meeting with Raszagal. The Matriarch greeted them with a grim expression.

“Your success has brought is the promise of hope against the Zerg,” she said. “However, we face a new threat within our own ranks. In your absence, Judicator Aldaris and an entire legion of Khalai survivors from Aiur have begun an open revolt against us.”

Zeratul was surprised that this situation was happening with the Zerg threat still present. “Why would Aldaris betray us so?” he asked.

“He and his ilk believe that it was wrong to have abandoned Aiur and consorted with our people,” Raszagal said. “Their prejudices have driven them to perpetuate the Conclave’s sins against us! Even now, Aldaris and his loyalist templar forces are preparing to attack our Citadel.”

Artanis was shocked about the terrible news but didn’t want to believe that Raszagal was speaking the truth. However, it was the best explanation as to why the blockade ships attacked them.

“As Matriarch of the Dark Templar and custodian of this world…” Raszagal continued. “...I hereby order you to terminate Judicator Aldaris, and quell this untimely uprising without delay! There will be no dissent among us while the Zerg are poised to strike!”

“Matriarch, do you know what happened to Bon...err, Sweetie Drops?” Lyra asked.

“I do not know of her whereabouts, young templar. If she is not here, then she was either captured or killed by Aldaris.” With that, Raszagal walked away.

Lyra grew worried about Sweetie. Nobody could even feel her presence. She still didn’t want to believe that something terrible had happened to her. She held onto hope that her marefriend was just hiding out somewhere.

“Something is amiss here.” Zeratul mused. “The Matriarch has always been a wise and gentle soul. Though there is some merit in her decision, this is very unlike her.”

“If you ask me, it’s about time my mother said something worthwhile,” a voice spoke from behind Lyra. She looked behind her to see who had just spoken. The voice belonged to a female Protoss with green eyes and severed nerve cord to show her Nerazim status. She also wore a Hydralisk skull on her right shoulder.

“Vorazun, to what reason do you grace us with your presence?” Zeratul asked.

Vorazun cast a withering glare at the Dark Prelate. “You should have known what troubles you would bring by allowing these servants of the Conclave to our world, Zeratul,” she said, uttering his name in a venomous tone. “I have come to inform you that due to the direness of the situation, the taboo on Dark Archons has been lifted. We will need them to match Aldaris’ forces.” With that, Vorazun walked away.

As the Citadel prepared its defenses, Lyra noticed a few Dark Templar performing a merge to form an Archon. However, she noticed immediately the differences between a regular Archon merge and one made by Dark Templar. The energies being emitted carried the terrifying crimson color associated with void energies. The form that emerged from the ball of energy was a figure out of a nightmare. Lyra quickly realized why Dark Archons were known for spreading fear on a battlefield.

A pair of Archons led an aggressive attack with Zealots behind them. The Dark Archons intercepted the group and used the void energies they commanded to addle the minds of the Archons while Lyra noticed the energy shields around the Dark Archons completely fade. What happened next made Lyra’s eyes become like dinner plates. The Archons turned on the Zealots that followed them and obliterated them with psionic energy. Lyra noticed a High Templar also followed behind the Zealots but the Dark Archons noticed him too. One stopped the Templar by stunning him in a void energy field while the other caused the psionic energy within the Templar to violently explode from within him, causing him to burst into light and fade.

Lyra could do nothing but shudder at the terrifying power of the Dark Archons, even more so at the thought of one of them using their power to turn her against Bon Bon or vice versa.

Artanis discovered through the Observers that Aldaris has created two illusory copies of himself and placed them and himself on a series of elevated platforms. Aldaris was always very skilled with his Hallucinations that not even an Observer could identify a real from a fake. Artanis was left with no choice but to guess at the correct one.

In the meantime, Artanis had the Dark Archons bolster their numbers by controlling the minds of the Archons, Arbiters, Reavers and Carriers that Aldaris had been sending at them. Although Artanis continued to concern himself with the ethical implications of Dark Archons, he also knew that they were necessary to overcome their situation.

Soon, they had warped in or taken control of a large force to assault the Khalai forces. Artanis decided to attack the Khalai base directly north of them since Aldaris or a copy of him was farther away from the other two. Lyra could not help but wince as Protoss lives were about to be needlessly thrown away for Aldaris’ rebellion.

Strangely enough, the base was mostly defended by Reavers and Photon Cannons. Lyra was very curious about the odd configuration of the base’s defenses when she was sure that there were better ways to protect a base.

The fleet of warped in or stolen ships began to attack the visage of Aldaris when the image fell apart, leaving nothing behind. The first Aldaris they attacked was a Hallucination.

Suddenly, Aldaris began taunting his enemies from the next closest platform that was more heavily guarded than the others. Lyra facepalmed because Aldaris’ trick was so simple to solve that a smart Protoss or Pony would overlook the obvious answer.

The small fleet went around the next base and attacked Aldaris’ position from behind. However, before too many shots were fired, Aldaris raised his arms in surrender.

Aldaris took one glance at the remaining copy and nodded for some reason. The distant image shimmered.

“Tell me, how well do Zerg regenerate? I don’t want to cause any permanent damage”

~”Zerg have excellent regenerative capabilities. Kerrigan was granted a stronger version of it to increase her chances of survival. Removing a limb will temporarily inconvenience her.”~

“Let’s see how long I can keep her distracted with this method.”

Zeratul, Lyra and Tassadar stood around Aldaris with Artanis hovering over him in his Scout. “It is finished, Judicator,” Zeratul declared. Surrender your remaining forces, and join us in eradicating the Zerg.”

“I would sooner die, dark one, than tarnish the memory of Aiur by joining with you,” Aldaris responded. “Your fate was sealed the moment your Matriarch allied herself with the Queen of Blades! Those of us still loyal to Aiur will never be slaves to Kerrigan and her Broods.”

Something about what Aldaris was saying didn’t sit right with Lyra. She believed that what Bon Bon was saying to him would have made sense to him. Why he would suddenly rebel when there was a bigger threat looming over the horizon was beyond her.

“Aldaris, be reasonable!” Artanis begged. “Kerrigan has changed. She no longer seeks to enslave anyone. Do not force us to destroy you.”

A series of Overlords hovered onto the platform and unloaded Kerrigan and three Lurkers onto it. While everyone was distracted with Aldaris, the Lurkers surrounded Aldaris and burrowed into the platform.

“You can no longer afford to be so naive, Artanis. While you were securing the crystals, I discovered that your Matriarch has been harboring a dark secret! She has been manipulated by--”

“We have no time for--,” Kerrigan interrupted. She raised the claws of her right arm at Aldaris...only to be distracted by an agonizing pain in her right arm where everything below that was completely numb. Kerrigan caught a glimpse of what looked like her right arm flying toward Aldaris. She slowly turned her head to look to her right to find that her right arm had been reduced to a stub with tissue hanging from the gaping wound. The pain came to a head and Kerrigan began howling in pain while clutching her stub.

“Everyone,” a mysterious voice spoke telepathically to Lyra and the Protoss. “Kerrigan is trying to kill Aldaris, stop her!”

Lyra immediately recalled the sound of Sweetie’s voice and trusted it enough to act on her words. Lyra instantly rushed toward Kerrigan and pointed her warp blade at her.

Kerrigan gave Lyra a glare “How did you cut my arm from that distance?”

“I didn’t,” Lyra said. “Most likely, that was Bon Bon who shot your arm off.”

“Bon Bon?”

“That’s Sweetie Drops to you!” Lyra shouted.

Kerrigan growled while a lone Shuttle arrived at the scene. The Shuttle unloaded an image of Aldaris, who walked up to Kerrigan. “You can drop the image now,” it said.

The illusory Aldaris faded away, revealing Sweetie Drops brandishing her smoking C-10 MK VI.

“You were in hiding disguised as one of Aldaris’ illusions?” Kerrigan inquired. “Clever, much as I hate to admit it. But all for naught.” Kerrigan’s eyes glowed for a moment...only to tilt her head in confusion while Aldaris, Zeratul and Tassadar were ferried away in a Shuttle. “What happened? Why didn’t my Lurkers attack him?”

The Lurkers surfaced and skittered up to Sweetie, who was a little creeped out by the creatures obediently coming to her. Kerrigan soon realized that her control over the Lurkers was taken from her. She quickly realized who took them and roared in fury, “Damn you, Sweetie Drops!”

Sweetie laughed for a moment before stopping to make her demands. “Alright, here’s what’s gonna happen: You’re gonna get into your Overlord and you’re going to leave Shakuras and never come back. If you do, You will be leaving again as nothing but a head and torso.”

“Why not just kill me and get it over with?” Kerrigan asked.

“I’m not allowed to divulge that information at this time.”

Sweetie released her control of the Lurkers and allowed them and Kerrigan to be loaded into the Overlords and watched as Kerrigan’s Zerg left orbit.

Now she, Lyra and the Protoss just need to deal with the rest of the Zerg on Shakuras.

Stand: Countdown

With Kerrigan’s humiliating departure, The Ponies and Protoss returned to New Antioch to discuss more important matters. On the way, Aldaris summarized that he discovered that Kerrigan was psionically manipulating Raszagal. Zeratul was shocked into disbelief, but recent interactions with the Matriarch had shown that Aldaris’ claims made sense.

Upon arrival, Zeratul had his brethren detain the Matriarch under suspicion of being under mind control. The Nerazim were confused at first, but Vorazun quickly showed up to second Zeratul’s command. With that, the Dark Templar went to arrest Raszagal.

“While I did enjoy her new attitude, I am in agreement that her behavior was unusual for her,” Vorazun said. “Now, can someone tell me why my mother is being arrested?”

“Aldaris has found evidence of your mother being mentally manipulated by the Queen of Blades,” Zeratul said.

“Of course...I kept telling her that it was about time to pass on the mantle. I warned her that someone would eventually take advantage of her old age and control her.”

“We should be able to break the control upon the Matriarch,” Tassadar said. “However, politically she is at great risk of falling to her control again. The leadership of the Nerazim must be transferred before something terrible happens.”

Everyone nodded their heads in agreement and made their way to the detainment cells.

Raszagal was not happy being imprisoned so suddenly. She had a feeling that Zeratul and her daughter had caught on that she was an agent for her Queen and was preparing to deal with her. She could do nothing as she heard footsteps and hoofsteps approaching her cell.

“Everyone,” Sweetie spoke up. “I’d like to try something, if you don’t mind.” Lyra and the Protoss let Sweetie approach the Matriarch’s cell. Placing a hand on the prison cell, Sweetie focused her mind and projected her influence toward Raszagal. She quickly discovered the influence that Kerrigan was imposing on the Matriarch and forced it away after significant effort, allowing Sweetie to steal control of the Matriarch’s mind away from the Queen of Blades. Once the other influence had completely vanished, Sweetie released her hold on Raszagal’s mind. “You can release her now.”

Zeratul deactivated the cell holding the Matriarch. Everyone stared at her for a minute, Lyra was holding a breath that she didn’t even know she was holding. Raszagal rose to her feet and spoke, “Thank you Sweetie Drops for freeing me from her vile control.” She looked at Vorazun. “I must apologize to you, my daughter, for my stubbornness. You were right, I am a liability to our people the way I am now if I cannot prevent someone like Kerrigan from controlling my mind. Thus, I shall leave leadership of our people to you and Zeratul. We will begin the ceremony to transfer the role of Matriarch, as per tradition, after we have saved Shakuras from the renegade Zerg.”

“We must act now while the Zerg still muster their forces,” said Artanis. “The crystals must be taken to the temple. We must also ensure that we do not endanger the crystals by keeping them in one location. Therefore, we shall set up two positions: Myself and Aldaris shall protect the Uraj, while Zeratul and Vorazun shall handle the Khalis.”

“A good plan,” Sweetie commented. “Lyra, please assist Vorazun and Zeratul. Myself and Tassadar will assist Artanis and Aldaris from the ground.”

Everyone agreed with the plan and went their separate ways to begin their preparations.

The temple grounds were in a terrible state since the Protoss last left them. The grounds and nearly the entire area surrounding the temple were almost entirely infested with renegade Zerg. The Protoss knew that they were in for a major battle.

Raszagal warned everyone that once the crystals were inside the temple, the Zerg would send everything they have to prevent the temple from destroying them, even if they had to level the whole structure.

The two bases quickly quickly set up defenses to protect themselves from large assaults. Each location regularly came under attack from moderate sized groups of Zerglings, Hydralisks and Mutalisks.

In order to take some of the pressure off of themselves, The two bases each launched an attack against the Zerg between their bases. The Zerg in between were caught in a pincer attack and were quickly crushed.

While the Protoss position was continuing to fortify, Artanis ordered a pair of Carriers to clear out the Zerg forces near the temple. The resistance was very minor and the swarm of Interceptors easily confused the Spore Colonies.

Meanwhile, Sweetie ordered a large number of Probes to completely mine the two bases dry before establishing a strong defensive perimeter around the temple once the Creep around the temple faded.

The ground forces, primarily Zealots and Dragoons were under constant harassment from another Brood’s Queens that exploited their organic forms to infect them with Broodlings while Lurkers tried to find openings in the defensive perimeter.

To counter these nuisances, a wing of Scouts were deployed to shoot down Zerg flyers. Observers kept a constant vigil for any burrowed Zerg. A number of Reavers were constructed to take care of large groups of Zerglings and Hydralisks.

Once a strong defensive base was constructed around the temple and the resources around the original bases were depleted, the original bases were abandoned and everyone gathered at the temple base.

Artanis landed his Scout and entered the temple with Zeratul, crystals in hand. Before Artanis disappeared into the temple, he gave command of the forces around the base to Sweetie and Lyra while informing them that they needed time to channel the temple’s energies to get the result they needed.

Sensing the coming threat, the Zerg began focusing their attacks toward the temple while unleashing everything they had on the Protoss forces. Defilers started unleashing swarms of insects over the Photon Cannons while other Zerg took advantage of the cover to attack the cannons. Lyra and Vorazun cut a swath through the Zerg ground forces while Aldaris made large groups more manageable from his Arbiter by placing some Zerg in a stasis field while the defenders take the rest, leaving the frozen ones for later.

Devourers started coming in groups to deal with any ships. Lyra and Sweetie supported the ships and Photon Cannons by unleashing Psionic Storms against the bulky flyers.

Time went on and the Zerg attacks continued to get more intense and more desperate. At one point, Lyra slashed off an Ultralisk blade and Sweetie grabbed it and stabbed the beast in the face with it. Guardians appeared in large numbers and attacked the defenses from a distance while Mutalisks and Devourers supported them. Archons, Scouts and Aldaris managed to control the enemy numbers.

The sheer number of Zerg was beginning to become overwhelming as the defenders were being hit hard and almost constantly. Sweetie began controlling Devourers and setting them against the other flyers. She soon learned that Guardians and Devourers were also a little difficult to control. The Overmind did what it could to help improve Sweetie’s control ability. Unfortunately, the sky was almost literally clouded with Zerg flyers and rumble of Zerg feet meant that a massive group was on its way.

Miraculously, Zeratul called out for everyone to withdraw into the temple and brace themselves for the blast.

As Sweetie was making a break for the temple entrance, she began to think, “Will you be able to withstand the blast?”

~”Only if you can make it into the temple. Now hurry!”~
Many Protoss abandoned their ships and flooded into the temple to prepare for the blast. Those inside did what they could to keep the Zerg from getting into the temple.

Soon, movement came from the structure of the temple itself which was followed up a minute later by a blinding flash of light that expanded outward in such a way that the entire planet was engulfed in the blinding light.

When the energies faded, the Protoss listened and looked outside of the temple, only to find no sign of the Zerg anywhere around them; only silence beyond the walls of the temple.

The Protoss and Ponies evacuated the temple to look around. There was not a Zerg in sight anywhere.

Sweetie and Lyra took this time to collapse in exhaustion and savor the moment of peace.

UED: Return to Aiur

With the renegade Zerg purged from Shakuras, the Protoss were finally able to enjoy a respite from their ongoing war against the Zerg. Those who survived the Zerg onslaught, returned to their lives or began building new ones in the case of the Khalai survivors.

Wandering around New Antioch, Lyra and Sweetie observed the Protoss trying to salvage what was left of their old lives. Lyra saw Karax, who had forged her first blades and her armor, doing what he could with the skills that he possessed.

Lyra couldn’t help but feel sad for the Protoss who were victimized by the Zerg. Tears were shed from the aquamarine mare from the unfortunate display before her. In response, Sweetie gave Lyra a big hug to help her feel better. It helped a little.

In a show to improve morale for the survivors, a rite was held for all Protoss, Khalai and Nerazim, to see. In this rite, Raszagal had informed everyone that due to recent events, she was convinced that the time for her to step down as Matriarch had come. She had faith that the fighting spirit of Vorazun was what her people would need for the years to come. And so, with her last act as Matriarch, she had passed on the mantle to her daughter.

Sweetie and Lyra applauded for the new leader of the Nerazim. Those who didn’t know Vorazun were uncertain of the future, but the Ponies knew that Vorazun would lift their spirits when the time came. Those who knew Vorazun had the greatest hope for what was to come.

Selendis approached Sweetie and Lyra to speak with them, “En taro Adun, Sweetie Drops and Lyra Heartstrings. Allow me to thank you two for all that you have done in service to Aiur and Shakuras,” she said in a formal tone.

Lyra tilted her head in confusion “Uhh...you’re welcome?” she said.

“Come, we have been summoned by Praetor Artanis for an important mission.”

Selendis picked up Zeratul along the way to the Citadel where Artanis was waiting with a High Templar, the Master of the Tribunal.

Inside the Citadel, Zeratul, Selendis, Lyra and Sweetie found Artanis waiting for them.

“Many of our fellow warriors are still remain marooned on Aiur,” Artanis began. “Since the warp gate is disabled, we must travel to our ruined homeworld and rescue our wounded brethren. To facilitate their safe transport, we must place their remains within Dragoons.”

“A number of renegade Zerg Broods have taken root upon Aiur,” the Master continued. “You must recover the three stasis cells that hold the remains of our brethren and scour the nearby area of Zerg.”

Without any further word, the participants of the operation boarded ships for the long ride back to Aiur.

Meanwhile...

UED forces push against the Dominion forces on Braxis seeking access to their datanet. During one of their pushes, they encounter a small base that showed no aggressive action as they approached. A dark skinned human wearing a hostile environment suit and a red beret walked up to the group and spoke, “I’d like to talk to the one in charge if you don’t mind.”

The Marine stared at the Ghost for a moment before putting him through to his commanding officer. <“This is Vice Admiral Alexei Stukov of the United Earth Directorate. State your name and your purpose.”>

“I am Lieutenant Samir Duran of the Confederate Resistance Forces. I’ve been monitoring your attack against the Dominion, and I’d like to offer you my services and skills in return for amnesty.”

<”Intriguing. Lieutenant, you have absolutely no idea as to who we are or what we have come here to do. Why do you wish to side with us?”>

“Because my men and I have sworn to fight against the Dominion and its Emperor. Seeing as how your forces have been laying into this Dominion base, I figured we’re on the same side.”

<”I see. How exactly do you propose to be of service to us, Lieutenant?”>

“Well, I possess intimate knowledge of the surrounding area. I can show you an alternate route that leads to the rear of the main Dominion base.”

<”Very well, Lieutenant. Consider yourself and your men the first colonial conscripts of the United Earth Directorate.”>

A small Protoss fleet holds orbit over Aiur. A scan to locate the three strangely placed stasis cells was conducted before a number of Shuttles were launched from the ships. The scans revealed a number of renegade Zerg Broods near the stasis cells and in order to establish a base for themselves, they would need to clear out some of the infestation.

As they disembarked from the Shuttles, the small force was beset upon by a few Zerglings which were incinerated by Archons.

Moving up a hill, the force discovered a small Zerg base that, strangely, lacked a Hatchery. The force pushed through the base and eliminated the living structures. Acting quickly, the accompanying Probes began establishing a base and worked on getting defenses built as soon as was possible.

“We are being hailed by the Dominion flagship, Norad III,” said a UED adjutant.

Deciding to humor the Dominion before obliterating their armada with their own armada of commandeered Battlecruisers, Stukov opened a channel to listen to the enemy representative.

<”Well now, I don’t know which militia you all are from, but I advise ya to back down...NOW! I’m General Edmund Duke of the Dominion Armada. And in the name of Emperor Mengsk, I order you to surrender your forces immediately and unconditionally.”>

Stukov chuckled a little before responding. “Ah, General Duke, I expected your forces to arrive sooner. You should know that we represent not one of your rag-tag peasant militias, but the combined might of the United Earth Directorate.”

<”Earth Directorate? You mean to tell me you’ve come all the way out here from Earth?”>

“That is correct, General. We’re here to take control over this sector and its occupants for the betterment of mankind.”

<”Over my dead body. I don’t care where yer from, son. No one pushes around the Terran Dominion on my watch! All units, fire at will!”>

With that, the two fleets engaged each other. Norad III did not participate in that battle and the Dominion fleet soon found itself completely outgunned and were quickly wiped out.

With a base fully established, despite heavy Zerg resistance, Lyra and Sweetie, who personally took part in the mission, set out with a moderate Protoss force. Moving southeast, they find a minor Zerg colony cluster that was guarding more resources for them to use against the remaining two broods.

The group forced their way through the colonies and set up a small outpost with adequate defenses.

Lyra and Sweetie brought a large force of Dragoons, Zealots and Reavers to push their way through the Zerg Hive cluster north of their main base. Air support came in the form of a wing of Scouts that shot down numerous Mutalisks with their missiles. Lyra would occasionally spot a Lurker trying to dig underground and would react to that by quickly jumping into the hole it made to dismember the multi-legged beast, then leaving the hole after making a bloody mess on her energy shield. Sweetie rolled her eyes as she was beginning to think that that was starting to become a recurring theme with her marefriend.

The Reavers tore through the remnants of the base before the army regrouped to deal with the remaining Brood near the stasis cells.

The Aleksander held high orbit over the Planet Tarsonis. During their planning for the next phase of their operation, the UED discovered something on the planet Tarsonis.

“We’ve just received word from our research team that they’ve uncovered some kind of hidden weapons relay upon this planet,” Stukov began. “They report that it’s called a Psi Disrupter, and that its purpose is somehow connected with the Zerg.”

“Admiral, during the Zerg invasion of these colonies, the Confederacy had manufactured a number of portable machines called Psi Emitters which had the uncanny ability to lure Zerg to their signals,” Duran spoke. “It was rumored that they had created a specialized emitter that could disrupt the Zerg’s communications, but Emperor Mengsk was never able to find it.

It appears that this Psi Disrupter is the machine he was looking for. I must humbly suggest to you, Admiral, that the Disrupter be destroyed as quickly as possible. If it should fall into the hands of the Dominion we could face some very serious problems.”

Much to Stukov’s dismay, DuGalle agreed with Duran’s suggestion. He pleaded with his old friend to reconsider his choice, speaking of the benefit that the weapon could be against the Zerg. But DuGalle had shut down Stukov’s suggestion. Stukov could not allow the device to be lost so he began to plan in secret.

Pushing against the remaining Zerg Hive cluster was more difficult because they were not afraid to pull their punches. The Zerg near the stasis cells threw every strain it had access to against Sweetie, Lyra and the Protoss.

Using clever teamwork, Lyra sliced off a pair of Ultralisk blades, leaving the beast nearly helpless against Zealots, then Sweetie hurled the blades at a pair of Devourers who were surprised from the display long enough to get impaled on the flying blades and knocking them out of the sky.

The Zerg defenses were soon overcome by the might of their invaders and the Hive Cluster was soon wiped out, leaving only the stasis cells.

An unidentified Shuttle arrived at the scene and unloaded four Dark Templars. The intruding Protoss made an aggressive movement toward the stasis cells. Sensing this and sending a quick mental communication to Lyra, the two of them slammed the four intruders to the ground.

“What is the meaning of this?” Sweetie asked.

“The fallen brethren shall embrace the void,” one of them said before he forced Lyra off of him and dove toward one of the stasis cells, determined to destroy the Protoss remains inside.

Lyra was not having that and performed a shadowstep above the charging Dark Templar and landed with a hoof against his neck, shattering the bone and severing the nerve with the fragments..

The injured Templar was in disbelief that he had been defeated by a non-Protoss species. He soon flared into light and faded away.

Sweetie made sure that the remaining three Dark Templar didn’t pull a stunt like the other one did by showing them that she was more than prepared to eliminate all of them if they didn’t surrender.

Their morale shot from the death of their leader, Ulrezaj, the remaining Dark Templar quietly surrendered.

With the mission taken care of, Sweetie and Lyra decided to use the opportunity to search Aiur for Fenix and Raynor.

“Captain, we’ve located the Psi Disrupter. Shall we plant the explosives on it?” Duran asked.

A UED Ghost approached Duran with orders to have him relieved from the operation under orders from Vice Admiral Stukov to facilitate the Disrupter’s disassembly.

Duran shrugged. He suspected that Stukov might be acting behind DuGalle’s back and decided that if the Disrupter reappeared, he could use the opportunity to turn the two friends against each other. For now, he would simply accept his orders and return to the Aleksander.

Author's Note

This arc will cover both the Iron Fist and Queen of Blades campaigns.

UED: The Fall of Augustgrad

The rebellious Dark Templar were turned over to Selendis and Zeratul. With the death of their leader, Ulrezaj, the rebels have lost their motivation to act against the Khalai. Although their hatred still remained, they knew that without their leader, they wouldn’t be able to lead any effective attacks against the Khalai.

The remains of the three missing warriors were placed into Dragoons. One among them, a warrior named Eredas, thanked Sweetie and Lyra for their rescue and for protecting them from Ulrezaj.

Deciding to look for their other missing friends, Raynor and Fenix, Sweetie and Lyra informed Zeratul and Selendis that they will remain behind on Aiur to find their missing friends. Zeratul figured that he would be unable to convince them to reconsider, so he honored their request.

Neither he nor Selendis would be able to assist them since they had more important matters to attend to on Shakuras, mainly the trial of the rebels. With their leader dead, it was doubtful that any sympathizers to Ulrezaj’s cause would waste resources rescuing a few henchmen.

The Ponies said their goodbyes to the fleet as they were sent to an area near the last location of the warp gate to Shakuras.

A few hours of walking through dense jungle had been rewarded when Lyra and Sweetie found a fully functional Protoss base. As they approached the base, the Protoss guards looked at them with suspicion for a moment before they recognized them. They were curious about why they were on Aiur. Lyra requested to see Praetor Fenix and Jim Raynor to whom the guards quickly escorted the Ponies.

When Fenix and Raynor saw the girls, the two of them were as curious as the guards. “What are you two doin’ here?” Raynor asked.

“We were originally here on a mission to retrieve a few injured Protoss in stasis cells surrounded by a few renegade Broods,” Sweetie responded. “We also encountered a few Nerazim that were bent on revenge against the Khalai and Lyra killed the leader by landing on his neck with her hoof.” The last part made Fenix laugh hard. “Since we were in the neighborhood, we decided to find you guys.”

Raynor shrugged. “Well, make yourselves at home. We got no end to the excitement ‘round here.”

The four of them began exchanging stories of their adventures on Aiur and Shakuras respectively. The guys spoke of their various conquests of the Zerg hive clusters while the girls talked about their quest for the Uraj and Khalis crystals that were used to purge Shakuras of renegade Zerg.

However, when Lyra got to the part about fighting against some faction called the United Earth Directorate, Raynor immediately went pale. “What the hell is Earth doin’ here?”

“I’d like to know that too,” Sweetie said. As much as she would like to know the intent of the UED, she would need more information about them before she could draw any conclusions.

“If my old Earth history lessons were worth anything, they have a strong desire to bring order to all facets of humanity, even the people who were sent away from Earth over two centuries ago. If their philosophy is still followed, they are likely here to establish dominance by taking out the current dominant faction and that’s Mengsk and his Dominion. What I don’t know is how they plan to safeguard humanity while the Zerg are around.”

“What if they try to take control of the Zerg?” Lyra asked.

“No, there’s only two things that can control the Zerg that I know of. One is Kerrigan and I doubt they even know of her existence. The other is the Overmind and that thing’s dead.”

That’s when it hit Sweetie: the UED does know of a way to control the Zerg. If everything that Raynor said holds true, then the UED will eventually make a move against the infant Overmind.

~”To be slaves to the Terrans would be an even greater disgrace than to be slaves to Amon,”~ said the elder Overmind.

Sweetie knew that action had to be taken against the UED. If they conquered the sector, she and Lyra would have no end to troubles in the future.

“Seems we have a common enemy, perhaps a truce is in order,” mentally spoke a familiar voice, one that she had hoped not to hear for a while longer: Kerrigan. Raynor, Fenix and Lyra behaved as if they received the message as well.

“What do you want, Kerrigan?” Sweetie mentally responded.

“If you are willing to assist me, I have a plan to dismantle the UED operations in the Koprulu Sector.”

There was no guessing what Kerrigan wanted from this. She wanted full control over the Zerg Swarm. Sweetie had to make a tough decision and neither option had desirable outcomes. The only thing that held any influence on her decision was the importance of Kerrigan living long enough to fulfill her role that the elder Overmind had given her.

“Does she seriously think…” Raynor spoke up but was interrupted by Sweetie’s mental response.

“Alright, we’ll go with your plan...for now. What do you need us to do?”

“Huh, would have thought that you needed more time to consider. Very well, I need you to go to Korhal and rescue Arcturus. The UED is about to begin its push against Augustgrad”

“I thought you wanted him dead?” Sweetie asked.

“Oh, I do, but he has something I need to bring down the UED”

With a sigh, Sweetie closed the psychic link. “Looks like we’re about to do something that neither of us are gonna like.”

“Least the Hyperion has a cantina,” Raynor quipped.

The Hyperion held high orbit over planet Korhal close enough to observe the situation in Augustgrad but far enough that they didn’t catch the attention of the UED.

The UED had begun a preemptive assault on the outskirts by targeting some important components of Mengsk’s arsenal. Keeping important targets in a less guarded area than the main city was a major tactical blunder in Sweetie’s opinion.

Based on their movements, the UED didn’t want to waste time dealing with both of Mengsk’s poorly placed assets and focused on destroying his nuclear silos. The UED simply advanced on the city while allowing Mengsk’s fleet of Battlecruisers to power up.

Another curious thought from Sweetie, “Why would the UED not destroy the Physics Labs too? Sure, Augustgrad’s defenses were formidable, but keeping the Battlecruisers powered down may have made the attack easier for them in the long run.”

The crew of the Hyperion continued to observe the events on Korhal. Just as Sweetie figured, Mengsk’s Battlecruisers were quite a nuisance. A significant number of Ghosts also kept the UED at bay for a while by locking down their mechanical units. Siege Tanks sniped the UED ground troops from afar.

Sweetie figured that the UED would probably overcome the city’s defenses, it was only a matter of time. In the meantime, she would need to make preparations to save Mengsk once his final defenses were breached.

“Fenix, have some Arbiters ready.” Sweetie said. “When the opportunity presents itself, I want them ready to engage a Mass Recall on us and Mengsk’s ship.”

“Are we really sure we want to do this?” Fenix asked.

“As much as I’d rather see Mengsk writhe in a cell, we can’t have the UED trying to mess with forces beyond their comprehension. As things stand, with the Dominion under siege, the only one who could amass enough forces to challenge the UED would be Kerrigan. The Protoss are still reeling from the Zerg invasion of Aiur and Shakuras and Mengsk’s media propaganda has marginalized Raynor’s reputation to the point where we could never rally the Humans of the sector against the UED. We simply don’t have any other options at this point.”

“Agreed, though I am having terrible premonitions about my future.”

Time marched on and the UED was slowly gaining ground against the Dominion defenders. Soon, the UED was at the foot of Mengsk’s palace. Sensing his defeat, Mengsk and Duke made an escape attempt aboard the Battlecruiser, Norad III.

The UED anticipated the attempt and surrounded the ship with a squadron of Wraiths and the Aleksander. Mengsk opened a channel to the UED in an attempt to parley with them.

“This is it!” Sweetie called. “Move in and assist Norad III.”

On their way, the group aboard the Hyperion listened in on some open transmissions.

<”So, the elusive Arcturus Mengsk at last.”> DuGalle said. <”I was hoping to speak with you before we finished our business here. I am Admiral Gerard DuGalle, and I must commend you, sir, for holding back our advance for as long as you have. You are indeed a worthy opponent.”>

<”My thanks to you, sir.”> Mengsk responded sarcastically. <”But you must know that your victory here means little to me. It might have taken me a while, but I did overthrow the Confederacy. I’ll overthrow your rule as well.”>

<”That seems unlikely, sir, seeing as how you’ll be publicly executed along with the rest of your ranking officers.”>

<”You wouldn’t dare!.”>

<”Hah! The man who crowns himself ‘Emperor’ speaks to me of daring? You have far outlived your reputation ‘citizen’ Mengsk. Captain, prepare to take the Emperor into custody.”>

“You’ll have to postpone those plans, gentlemen.” Raynor said to Mengsk and DuGalle.

The Hyperion, along with a squadron of Scouts opened fire on the Wraith squadron, allowing access to Mengsk’s flagship.

<”What? Who are these intruders?!”> DuGalle spoke with surprise in his voice.

<”Jim Raynor and Sweetie Drops...What the hell are you two doing here?!”>

<”I’m pullin’ your ass out’ve the fire, Arcturus.”> Raynor said angrily. <”So shut up and sit tight. Make no mistake about it; we’ve got a serious score to settle, but right now a mutual acquaintance of ours wants you alive.”>

Sweetie orders the distant Arbiters to engage a Mass Recall. The feeling of being ripped away through space felt similar to when a unicorn teleported, at least according to Lyra.

When the ships reappear near the Arbiters, the Hyperion transmits the coordinates to Aiur to Norad III with a demand that the ship accompanies them. The Protoss fleet made sure that the Norad III crew complied before the ships engaged warp drives to Aiur.

Sweetie had a feeling that the UED was not going to give up the pursuit so easily.

UED: Escape and Betrayal

Matt Horner was quite annoyed. Every crew member and every Raider that he passed kept asking him the same questions: “Why is our mortal enemy traveling with us?”, “Why are we not trying to destroy that Dominion Battlecruiser?”, or “When did we join the Dominion?”. The only thing keeping him from lashing out at someone was knowing that Raynor and Sweetie were about as happy with the arrangement as he was.

He had been told that the only reason they accepted such a desperate and dangerous alliance was because the UED had been sticking their noses into matters where they had no business meddling since, according to Raynor, the forefathers of the Humans of the Koprulu sector were mostly criminals who were slated for mass execution and were never supported after they were sent away. They were also trying to control the most dangerous force in the known universe.

Their long journey had finally come to an end when the ships arrived over the planet Aiur. All ships descended toward the surface and arrived over a Protoss base that was guarding the warp gate to Shakuras.

Once everyone, including Mengsk and Duke, were together in Raynor’s Command Center, Raynor was the first to speak, “So, think we’ll be safe here from the UED?”

“Doubt it,” Sweetie responded. “If they have any idea on how to pursue their targets, they likely have some way to track us. They are probably on their way here as we speak.”

“Any way we can shake these guys?” Raynor asked.

“It might be possible to escape the UED by fleeing to Shakuras through the warp gate and destroying it once we cross over,” Fenix suggested.

Sweetie hummed, “We might be able to use the nearby renegade Zerg Broods to our advantage to distract the UED. They will come after us as well, but that’s a risk we’ll have to take.”

Mengsk, who had grown impatient, caused an outburst, “Can someone please explain to me what the hell is going on? Why did you even bother rescue me? I know for a fact that at least two of you want me dead, so why? And who is this ‘mutual acquaintance’ that Raynor mentioned.”

“How about you shut up before we consider a plan B that involves putting a hole in your head and dealing with the UED ourselves,” Sweetie responded. “You should know who the ‘mutual acquaintance’ is since you tried to kill the both of us that day. The only reason you’re not awaiting an execution right now is because she needs something you have to take down the UED.”

That’s when it clicked in Mengsk’s head. “You’re working with that monster?”

“You wanna sit on your little throne again? You will work with her too.”

Mengsk growled. Knowing that he had no other choice that didn’t lead to becoming a corpse, he accepted Sweetie’s terms.

Suddenly, an alert went out when sensors picked up the UED engaging a small Hive that was swarming with Mutalisks earlier. The same unknown ships, that Mengsk referred to as Valkyrie missile frigates, unleashed a huge bombardment of rockets that wiped the Mutalisks out while Siege Tanks finished off the Hive Cluster.

With little time to lose Fenix ordered the warp gate reactivated. Upon activation, the renegade Broods began to act irritated and soon became active.

It wasn’t long before the Zerg started attacking the Protoss defenders while occasionally attacking the UED. Fighting a three way battle was not favorable for them nor for the UED, but it would buy enough time for Sweetie to execute her escape plan. She gave the coordinates to Shakuras to the Hyperion with instructions to meet them after the warp gate was destroyed and to avoid detection by the UED.

While the Protoss, Zerg and the UED were distracted with each other, an Arbiter moved at a casual pace toward the warp gate. A few seconds after the Arbiter’s arrival, the warp gate shimmered six times. The Arbiter moved away from the warp gate to engage the UED.

Before they entered the warp gate, Sweetie and Lyra felt the presence of something powerful and malevolent nearby. The presence felt similar to something they both felt once before but neither of them could quite remember where they felt it before.

Once the UED had made it to Raynor’s Command Center, a massive swarm of Mutalisks made their presence known to the UED. With no choice but to engage the bigger threat, the UED was forced to allow Mengsk and Raynor to escape. The warp gate self destructed while the UED engaged the Zerg.

DuGalle was at a loss about what happened. During the battle on Aiur, his old friend Alexei Stukov went AWOL and brought a number of troops to Braxis.

Duran could sense the disrupting emanations of the supposedly destroyed Psi Disrupter coming from somewhere on Braxis. Knowing that Stukov had something to do with it, he decided that now would be a good time to turn the old friends against each other and be rid of a potential threat. All DuGalle needed was a little coaxing.

Once the Aleksander’s sensors picked up on the Disrupter, that was all Duran needed to turn DuGalle against Stukov. Once fully convinced, DuGalle ordered Duran to deal with the Vice Admiral appropriately.

Duran couldn’t believe how easy it was to fool DuGalle into ordering a kill order for Stukov. He mentally chuckled at how clever he was while watching some Marines blow open the door into the Psi Disrupter. After a brief firefight with the guards, the Marines made way for Duran to enter the facility.

Upon approaching a nearby terminal, Duran realized that Stukov had taken measures to make sure he was locked out of the system. One of the Marines, who was clueless about computers, tried to request Stukov’s location only to be denied access to the information without some code. In response, the computer activated some nearby defenses which were blown to pieces.

Some engineers nearby were tight-lipped about their information and were simply killed instead along with any nearby guards. The next room of significance had a more Marine-friendly terminal that revealed the location of a repair bay for Goliaths.

The next terminal also denied them any access to information before some curious engineers exited a nearby room. One of the Marines, who was more than pissed threatened the engineers, “Gimme the damn access codes before I BLOW AN AGGRESSION INHIBITOR!”

The engineers tried to escape but were quickly eliminated until one was left who told them the password to the terminal...before one trigger happy Marine killed him too, “Uh...oops...heh.”

The terminal gave them the current location of Vice Admiral Stukov before they moved into the Goliath repair bay.

The engineers ran away to alert the Goliath pilots, who were quickly eliminated. The Marines began to board their new mechs and after testing the controls were ready to move forward.

Stukov could only helplessly watch as Duran and his force of misguided troops laid waste to the defenses.

He had his suspicions of Duran’s treachery ever since he convinced he convinced DuGalle to have the Psi Disrupter, the most advantageous tool that they could have if they wanted to take control of the Overmind on Char, destroyed.

His suspicions were further justified when Duran’s forces had “conveniently” moved out of position. It was at this point that he was convinced that Duran was a double agent for someone who wanted the UED campaign to fail. Perhaps, he may have even ordered the Mutalisk swarm to distract the UED while Mengsk and Raynor escaped through the warp gate. “Could he perhaps be an infested human?” he wondered.

It was at that point that the door to his room was opened, revealing a Duran with a maniacal grin on his face.

“Vice Admiral Stukov, I am here under orders to terminate your command,” Duran said.

“Lieutenant Duran. I’m not surprised. We both know exactly what it is that you’re here to terminate. Get on with it.” Stukov responded in complete resignation.

“Say goodnight, Stukov,” Duran said with a smirk as he aimed his rifle at Stukov.

“To hell with y-*gasp*,” was all Stukov managed to get out before Duran shot him in the chest. Duran disabled his transponder and disappeared.

DuGalle, who had detected Duran’s deactivated transponder, demanded a status report, only for Stukov to respond with his own communicator.

“Gerard...old friend. You do indeed have a traitor in your midst...but it’s not me. Duran. He has been playing us both from the start...He convinced you to destroy the Psi Disrupter...even though it was our best chance at defeating the Zerg. And then, on Aiur...he allowed the Zerg to overrun us even as we had the fugitives in our grasp. I came here...to activate the one hope we have of defeating them...And you killed me for it. Heh,heh...Duran is your enemy Gerard. I suspect...that he may even be infested as well...Use the Disrupter, Gerard...Finish our operation...Let my death have at least some meaning…” With that, Stukov stopped breathing and his body became completely unresponsive.

DuGalle queried the computer for Duran’s location but was unable to be found. His friend dead, his justice denied, the only thing left to keep him going was ensuring that Alexei did not die in vain.

UED: Kerrigan's Plan

The whole campaign to bring order to the Koprulu sector had taken a sudden and tragic downturn for the old decorated officer of the United Earth Directorate. Sure, the campaign began without a hitch. They conquered Braxis, they defeated the Dominion Armada, they even breached the defenses of Augustgrad.

What caused the situation to begin to deteriorate was the discovery of the Psi Disrupter. He should have listened to Alexei. The two of them had been through much together. Sure, he was twelve years older than him, but he still had wisdom that he lacked. Why did he let someone like Duran come between him and his friendship? Why did he let his self-righteous pride get the better of him?

Unfortunately, DuGalle had little time to lament over his mistake that cost the life of his best friend. The UED still had a job to do and he would see it done. Since Mengsk and Raynor were nowhere to be found, he would have to move the agenda to its next phase.

DuGalle ordered the garrison on Braxis to keep the Psi Disrupter at full power while the rest of the fleet headed to Char to claim the Overmind in the name of humanity.

After escaping the UED pursuit, Sweetie, Lyra, Raynor, Fenix, Mengsk and Duke took some time to relax after their ordeal. Well...most of them anyway. Mengsk and Duke were on edge about having his enemies all around him and little means of self-defense.

However, the troubles never cease. Everyone received a psychic transmission from Kerrigan. She had informed everyone that the UED had successfully taken control of the Overmind on Char and were controlling some device called a Psi Disruptor. She also said that she had a plan to defeat the UED.

Fenix was skeptical of anything Kerrigan might plan because he knew that her ultimate objective was absolute control over the Zerg. Raynor was also suspicious of her motives.

Sweetie however, had her own agenda to pursue and since the UED was in the way of that agenda, she decided to help her. Everyone else begged Sweetie to reconsider, even Lyra. But Sweetie stood firm with her decision.

Thinking it was time to let Lyra in on her insider information, Sweetie took Lyra to an isolated room when she usually wanted to keep information private from others. With the usual wards in place, Sweetie began to explain herself, “Sorry that I haven’t told you about what I’ve been thinking lately Lyra. I really have been trying to find the opportunity to tell you and decided that this would be as good of a time as any.”

“What’s going on Bonnie?” Lyra asked.

Sweetie began recounting everything from the attack on the original Overmind until now: How she was infected by a parasite that contained the remnants of the Overmind’s consciousness, how it told her about the history of the Swarm, about Amon, about Kerrigan’s importance to the future of the Universe and about the threat that the UED poses if they stay in control of the Zerg as well as the grim consequences if Kerrigan were killed.

Lyra didn’t want to believe many of the things that Sweetie told her, but she knew that Bon Bon would never lie to her unless it was to protect her from a truth that she couldn’t handle. If she wanted to lie to her, she would have come up with some that would actually give her some reassurance. On the other hand, her marefriend was infected with a parasite in her brain. She had no way of knowing whether or not the Overmind was controlling her in some way. On the other other hand, Lyra has not found Bon Bon behaving any differently than how she usually did. She always was one to tell others what to do, especially her. Since she couldn’t know for certain, she placed her faith that Bon Bon knew what she was doing and that she was still her usual self.

After she finished thinking about it, she smiled at Sweetie and gave a look of determination. “So what’s the plan?” Lyra asked. “You know she may try to kill one of our friends again.”

Sweetie smirked at Lyra in return. “Oh, I know she will try. Amon may have twisted her personality, but she has also become quite predictable, at least for me anyway. The only one who would be desperate enough to cut a deal with Kerrigan would be Mengsk. He wants his kingdom and she wants her Swarm. I’m sure that once Mengsk gets Korhal back, she will strike soon after that. It’s the perfect opportunity and she usually chooses those times which makes her easy to predict.”

“So that time with Aldaris…”

“Yup, I had Aldaris gather what intel he could on Raszagal. I felt Kerrigan’s presence in the Matriarch’s mind and I needed Aldaris to confirm this for me while we were looking for the crystals. Shortly after we breached the UED blockade on Braxis, I received a transmission from Aldaris to tell me that he found the proof we needed to prove that Kerrigan was planning something behind our backs. Knowing that the perfect opportunity would be when he was about to blab his findings to everyone, Aldaris and I came up with a plan to start a fake insurrection where I would hide in plain sight as one of Aldaris’ clones and when she was about to strike, I sniped her and sounded the alarm to close her window of opportunity. I even took control of the Lurkers that accompanied her to make sure that she didn’t try to go around us.

Lyra was in awe of Sweetie’s deductive skills and her cleverness. The meeting between the two took a passionate turn for the rest of the time within the room.

Lyra and Sweetie returned to the group to get the gist of what happened while they were away. Apparently, their meeting with Kerrigan was cut short by some emergency that was going on on her side. The last thing she said though was to meet her at planet Braxis.

Just being near Braxis was giving Sweetie a headache. She quickly realized that the Psi Disrupter was no joke. In such conditions, she couldn’t use her ability to control Zerg.

Kerrigan soon arrived with someone neither the Protoss nor the Ponies had met before. While the person showed that he had a small sign of infestation, Sweetie and Lyra saw that he had a familiar aura about him that they remembered sensing on Aiur: powerful and malevolent. The Ponies were uncertain if anyone else could feel the aura, but kept the knowledge to themselves for the time being.

Kerrigan started complaining about the Disruptor making things harder on her as she struggled to keep her minions in line. Raynor responded with a mocking comment then demanded why Mengsk had to come along.

“Are you still suspicious that I’ll kill him for abandoning me to the Zerg? I’ve gotten over it, Jim. We can’t afford to let petty hatreds jeopardize our plans for the UED,” Kerrigan said.

Sweetie interjected, “If you’re gonna tell us what your plan is, you should at least come up with a better lie, Kerrigan.”

“Oh? And what makes you think I’m lying?”

“Because you and I are alike in quite a few ways. If I were in your shoes, I’d be making Mengsk’s life a living hell until the one night comes where I show up in his bedroom to shoot him in every non-vital area on his body until he slowly bled to death.”

Everyone was stunned by Sweetie’s comment. Kerrigan was the first to recover where she started laughing. When she was finally able to stop, she spoke, “Wow Sweetie Drops, you can be quite dark sometimes. Fine, I’ll admit that I still want Mengsk dead. But I’m willing to wait until the UED is no longer a threat before I start planning my revenge.”

“At least you’re honest about it,” Mengsk quipped.

Kerrigan turned her attention to Mengsk, “Arcturus...I presume your trip here was pleasant?”

“Get to the point, Kerrigan.”

“Aww...I was hoping to chat. It’s been awhile.”

“Not long enough.”

“I need your Psi Emitters, Arcturus. Thanks to the Psi Disrupter that you’ve never been able to find, I can barely control my minions. I need your Emitters to gather enough Zerg to launch an assault on the Psi Disrupter. In exchange, I’ll help you liberate Korhal from the UED.”

“What assurances do I have of you fulfilling your end of the bargain?”

“The fact that your fate will be one of two things: a throne or a little eight by eight cell.”

“Still as persuasive as ever. All right, I’ll lend you some Emitters but this had better be worth it.”

With Mengsk convinced, Sweetie began to go over the plan. Raynor would send his Raiders to take out the primary power generator for the Psi Disrupter. Mengsk would send an SCV to lure feral Zerg to him and hope to find some Drones for Kerrigan to build a hive cluster so she can take out the Psi Disrupter.

Once the power generators were located, Raynor launched a moderate force that crushed the guards around the generator. Sweetie observed the events from the Hyperion and she was surprised at how weak the defenses were near the generators. Raynor evacuated his group and the operation moved to phase two.

One of Mengsk’s SCVs lured some Zerg to him so that Kerrigan could control them. With some Drones, she built a hive cluster near the UED base guarding the Disrupter. The SCV also lured in some particularly strong variations of Zerg, including Hunter Killers which were enhanced Hydralisks, Devouring Ones which were enhanced Zerglings and a Torrasque which was an enhanced Ultralisk.

Once all feral Zerg in the area were collected, the SCV pilot, who could not hide his anxiety, requested immediate evac and was taken away from the area.

Once she had a strong force ready, Kerrigan began to overwhelm the UED garrison and slaughter everyone guarding the Disrupter. By claws, spines and blades, the large device was torn apart and the UED had lost their biggest advantage.

With the Psi Disrupter destroyed, the time had come for Kerrigan to fulfill her end of the bargain.

UED: The Cost for Liberation

Sweetie was aboard the Hyperion doing some research on the device that she recovered from the Kel-Morian Combine. She tried looking up the device on any of the public databases, but came up with nothing. She tried looking up any info on the device on any Kel-Morian database that she could find and couldn’t find anything. With no other leads, she sighs and puts the device on the table next to her.

“Whacha got there?” Raynor asked.

“I’d tell you if I knew what it was,” Sweetie responded. “I found this thing in the hands of the Kel-Morians but I can’t find any information about it in the known databases.”

Raynor hummed, “In that case, there’s a chance you got some sorta experimental prototype. Any info on it would be on highly encrypted files that aren’t easily read by the public.” Raynor picks up and takes a look at the device, noticing that it could be fitted onto a weapon. “Well, nothin’ to it but see what it does for your weapon.”

Sweetie shrugged then took the device from Raynor’s hand. Pulling out her C-10 MK VI, she examined both the device and her weapon until she found a slot that the device fit. Placing the device into the slot, a short holographic display appeared over her rifle: “T.N.O.D. Activated. No nearby targets found.”

Sweetie raised an eyebrow and turned to Raynor, “What does TNOD stand for?”

“I have no idea,” was all Raynor could say.

The Hyperion and Kerrigan’s Swarm held high orbit over Korhal. Kerrigan, who was aboard the Hyperion with Lyra, Sweetie, Raynor and Fenix, was in attendance for the final strategy meeting before the attack on the UED-held city of Augustgrad began.

“You have all performed superbly. Especially you, Sweetie. My hive clusters are brimming with energy and my Broods are stronger than ever,” Kerrigan said.

Mengsk was clearly feeling impatient about the attack happening. Sweetie couldn’t blame him since he was surrounded by his enemies and wanted to get away from everyone as quickly as possible.

Kerrigan, who was clearly taking pleasure from Mengsk’s discomfort, made the meeting last a little longer by stating what they would be up against. Everyone already knew that the UED had a substantial standing army reinforced by Zerg that the UED were controlling through their pet Overmind.

“Raynor,” Kerrigan continued. “You, Fenix and Lyra will strike at the more outlying fortification, while my forces and Sweetie are busy assaulting the main UED base at Augustgrad.”

“We’ve discussed this plan a hundred times! Commence the damn attack!” Mengsk shouted, clearly at the end of his patience.

As Lyra, Fenix and Raynor attacked the outlying defenders of Augustgrad, Sweetie and Kerrigan began attacking the main base. A few Hatcheries were set up and Colonies to extend the Creep. The five Command Centers stolen from the Kel-Morians landed near the hive cluster. Some Infested Terrans emerged from the Command Centers to report for duty.

It wasn’t long before a small Zerg attack group tried to attack them. Kerrigan noted that the small group was unusual for Zerg and considered that the UED was having trouble controlling the Overmind.

“Sounds about right,” Sweetie commented. “They are playing with forces they couldn’t begin to understand.”

“And you could?” Kerrigan remarked.

Sweetie simply shrugged. She wasn’t about to reveal to the Queen of Blades her source of intel.

Using her ability to control Zerg, Sweetie made use of the Infested Command Centers and had the Infested Terrans perform suicide bombings against groupings of Marines and Goliaths while also seeking Bunkers and Sunken Colonies to explode upon.

With Sweetie defending the hive cluster with the infested, Kerrigan had more freedom to build up the hive cluster. Using a large force of Zerglings, Hydralisks and Ultralisks, Kerrigan went on the offensive and began to lay waste to the nearest UED base. Defilers accompanied the force and allowed the melee troops to attack defensive emplacements under a cover of insect clouds.

Kerrigan also took advantage of freed up resources to expand towards the main UED base.

With a large amount of resources to use, Kerrigan quickly built a large army that overwhelmed the remainder of the UED defenses at Augustgrad.

The UED forces that survived were forced to retreat back to Char where their last stronghold was located.

“The UED’s defenses are broken,” Kerrigan declared. She decided to be snide and tell Mengsk that he could have Korhal with her blessings.

Fully aware of her mocking tone, Mengsk berated Kerrigan for her remark, saying that the liberation of Korhal was merely part of the deal he made with her. He also stated that he would send Duke to establish his base of operations.

Sweetie slipped away from the area before Kerrigan considered turning her attention to her.

A lone Arbiter pulled up to the Hyperion, carrying a certain Judicator. Upon arrival, he opened a channel with the Battlecruiser. “I am here, what do you need of me?” Aldaris asked, annoyed at having to be dragged away from his duties.

<”I have need of your skills again. I need you to disguise one of our warriors as Fenix’s Dragoon. The warrior will be buying us time to make our escape from here. If we mess this up, Kerrigan will likely rush us before we can get away. This has to be done with the greatest of subtlety so minimize your psionic presence.”>

“Very well, I shall meet you at the base camp then?”

Sweetie nodded and the transmission cut right after that.

That night…

A Shuttle hovered over Fenix, unloading Aldaris and Sweetie. “What are you two doing here at this time?” Fenix asked.

The brave Dragoon that volunteered to be bait approached the trio. Sweetie turned to Aldaris and motioned for him to proceed.

Aldaris focused his psionic power to copy an image of Fenix into his mind, he then altered the visual form of the volunteer using the image.

Sweetie then ordered Fenix and Aldaris aboard the Shuttle before boarding it and returning to the Hyperion.

Aboard the Hyperion, Sweetie decided that as much as she hated Mengsk’s guts and Duke was no better in her book, she felt that they at least deserved a fighting chance. She opened a channel to Norad III.

<”What’re ya doin’ callin’ us in the middle of the night?”> Duke demanded.

“I wanted to inform you that Kerrigan is most likely planning on turning on you shortly. I’d wake your men up now if I were you.”

<”And why would you of all people tell me this? Last ah checked, you were among those who wanted to see me dead.”>

“Let me ask you this: If you were to die tomorrow morning, would you rather die with your pants down, or would you rather die fighting at your best.”

<”You think little Kerrigan can take me down? Ha! She’d better be prepared to bring her full arsenal if she wants to bring me down.”>

With that, the transmission ended and the Hyperion prepared to leave the Korhal system.

Kerrigan was completely caught by surprise when she saw the Dominion troops scrambling while their movement suggested that they were making a move on her hive cluster. Not only that, but the Protoss were also alerted to the treachery that she was supposed to bring upon them.

Kerrigan had barely managed to fend off the Terran and Protoss while trying to get her hive cluster ready to move against the two bases.

Duran was clearly confused about what was going on. “I don’t understand, the Dominion and Protoss were supposed to be asleep after that battle. How did we lose our chance at a preemptive strike?”

Kerrigan didn’t need to be a genius to know what happened. “Sweetie Drops…” she growled deeply. “She must have tipped them off. She is far too clever to be kept alive. No matter, press the attack! Let none survive.”

Kerrigan decided to focus her forces against the Dominion first. Her reports indicated that Duke was maintaining his position near their main base.

The Nuclear Strikes were a menace to Kerrigan’s forces but were not crippling. Kerrigan managed to put together a large force that tore through many Dominion structures and troops while defending against numerous Protoss assaults.

The Zerg soon rushed into the main Dominion base with Norad III northwest of the base. Over a loudspeaker to the Zerg, Duke spoke, “Well, well, well. If it isn’t little Kerrigan. A little Pony told me we’d be meetin’ like this. You’ve got a lot to answer for, little girl.”

Kerrigan telepathically responded to Duke, “I always wanted to have you killed. This is kind of exciting for me.”

“Do your worst then, girl. You ain’t takin’ Edmund Duke without a fight!”

Taking the challenge, Kerrigan had a large number of Hydralisks and Mutalisks converge on the Battlecruiser before a flock of Scourge blew themselves up against Norad III. The Battlecruiser was unable to maintain its altitude after that and crashed into the ground.

Duke emerged from the wreckage and stared into the empty eyes of a pack of Hydralisks. A moment passed before he found himself stabbed by countless flying spines filled with poison. Duke couldn’t even utter a word before he collapsed on the ground and ceased all movement.

Mengsk, enraged from the death of his second-in-command, screamed through one of the base’s loudspeakers, “Kerrigan, you murdering bitch! We had a deal!”

“Oh, come on, Arcturus. Did you really think I’d allow you to come into power again? You practically fed me to the Zerg on Tarsonis! You’re directly responsible for the hell I’ve been through! Did you honestly think I’d let you get away with that? I think I’ll leave you here, Arcturus, among the ashes of your precious Dominion. I want you to live to see me rise to power. And I want you to remember in your most private moments, that it was you who turned me loose in the first place.”

Kerrigan unleashed another wave from her main hive cluster that easily tore through the Protoss defenses before the wave that finished off the Dominion base regrouped and attacked the Protoss base with the second wave in a pincer move that wiped out the Protoss, leaving Fenix alone.

“This is a betrayal most foul, Kerrigan! We were fools to have gone along with this charade!” Fenix said.

“You’re right, Fenix. I used you to get the job done, and you played along just like I knew you would. You Protoss are all so headstrong and predictable, you are your own worst enemies.” Kerrigan responded.

“I could say the same about you. I can see that Tassadar’s lesson never fully sunk in.”

“What is that supposed to mean? Unless…”

A nearby Queen struck down the Dragoon with a Broodling seed. Kerrigan, looking through the eyes of the Queen, noticed the ruined form of Fenix shimmer and fade away. What was left behind was an ordinary Dragoon.

Realizing the deception, Kerrigan contacted Duran to find out where the Hyperion went. Duran responded by saying that the Hyperion was not in orbit and had likely fled long before the battle.

Kerrigan gave a rage-fueled, blood-curdling scream when she realized that Sweetie Drops had tricked her yet again.

UED: Doing a Favor

Aboard the Hyperion, Lyra, Sweetie, Raynor, Aldaris and Fenix breathed a sigh of relief as they managed to escape from Korhal before Kerrigan became aware of Sweetie’s scheme to trick her into killing a fake Fenix and tipping off the Dominion to buy them some time for them to get away as far as possible.

Sweetie figured that Kerrigan was likely furious by this point and with the way things were, she would need to lay low until Kerrigan calmed down. If she wanted that to happen this decade, she would need to do something to appease her. Kerrigan wanted the whole swarm at her beck and call and there was only one way to do so.

Fenix approached Sweetie, taking care not to damage anything with his large robotic form. “My thanks for saving me from the treachery of the Queen of Blades,” he said.

Sweetie smiled. “Think nothing of it,” she said.

“You know that Kerrigan will be targeting you from now on, I pray that you are prepared for that.”

“Don’t worry about it. I have a plan to improve her mood a little, the bad news is that you’re not gonna like it.”

Fenix took on a wary tone, “What do you have in mind?”

“First we head back to Shakuras. We will need Zeratul and the Dark Templar to accomplish this task.”

With that, the Hyperion set course for Shakuras.

Upon arrival, everyone was greeted by Vorazun and Raszagal. “Adun toridas, noble warriors,” Raszagal said. “What brings you here to Shakuras?”

“We need to speak with Zeratul. His assistance will be needed for an assault on the UED stronghold on Char,” Sweetie said.

“Why would you need to do so? This war is between the UED and Kerrigan.”

“Because sooner or later, Kerrigan is going to give you a reason since she needs you to kill the fledgling Overmind. Best to kill it now than have her come knocking at your doorstep, causing lots of damage.”

Zeratul found Sweetie talking with Raszagal and Vorazun and approached the three. “Friend Sweetie, what brings you here?”

“Just the Protoss I wanted to see, I need your forces to take out the UED base on Char and to kill the Overmind. We need to do so before Kerrigan decides to show up and try to use Raszagal and Vorazun as hostages.”

“Why do you believe that Kerrigan can get past our defenses?”

“Just because I can outmaneuver Kerrigan doesn’t mean she’s any less dangerous. She can be very determined when she wants to be. We also can’t allow the UED to keep their hold on the Overmind. There’s no telling when they will master controlling the creature. And yes, I know this will allow Kerrigan full control over the Swarm, but there are far worse things that I can think of that would make this operation preferable.”

Zeratul considered Sweetie’s argument for a minute before coming to a decision, “Very well, we shall go to Char and slay the accursed Overmind.”

Taking a small fleet to Char, the Protoss prepared to locate a landing zone near the Overmind. Onboard the Gantrithor were Sweetie, Lyra, Raszagal, Vorazun and Zeratul. Fenix and Raynor decided to remain behind since they were not needed for the operation. Raynor wanted some downtime and Fenix wanted to tell his old master of his recent exploits.

“So, you ready for the operation?” Lyra asked Sweetie.

Sweetie smiled and shook her head, “Not this time, Lyra. I need to lay low for a while after what happened on Korhal. Besides, I think it’s time for you to take the lead on this. I know that you’re capable of leading others like I can, you just need to be confident in yourself. Remember what I told you before you went looking for the Khalis.”

Lyra was nervous about leading others. She was afraid of messing up and getting others needlessly killed, which Sweetie assured her was normal behavior for a leader and that she was always worried that everything would go south on her. It made Lyra feel a little better about herself.

Lyra and the forces from Shakuras landed on a site that had not yet been fully developed by the UED. Attacking the Zerg and Terran Structures in the area from the shadows, the Protoss were able to set up a base and prepare a decent defense until they were ready to take on the UED and their pet Zerg.

Thanks to the Dark Templar, there was little issue with getting the base set up since the Zerg were not sending their Overlords at first and the UED could not react in time to their attacks after the area was scanned. An Observer discovered some unused resources on the island and Lyra had some Probes harvest them.

Lyra took a force of Reavers, Dark Templar and Scouts to lay waste to the UED Zerg hive cluster that was near their base. While the Reavers tore through the structures and Lyra and the Dark Templar took out any Zerg and Terran troops that went after the Reavers, the Scouts provided air support by dealing with Mutalisks and Overlords and Observers made sure that Lurkers were not an issue. Once the skies were cleared, the Scouts kept watch for any Overlords and Dropships that wanted to reinforce their fading position in the area.

With the area secure, Lyra sent Probes to gather the resources from the area the UED Zerg hive cluster once was. Zealots and Dragoons were prepared for the next part of their assault as they continued their way toward the Overmind. Once the Reavers crept their way back to the main base, Vorazun, Zeratul and Lyra led the assault on the UED base north of their main base. The Terrans fared little better than the Zerg hive cluster did and were quickly wiped out.

With the enemies on the island eliminated, the Protoss fortified their position and warped in Corsairs to repel Overlords and Dropships. Since the UED had little option without ferrying troops to the island and realizing the potential to bolster their numbers, Lyra convinced a few Dark Templar to merge into Dark Archons. With them in play, the Dark Archons occasionally took control of enemy transports and the enemies within.

While the Shuttles were being prepared, Lyra had the brainwashed transports return to the enemy-held islands and cause some damage before the UED took them out. The transports that survived were used to assist the Shuttles in ferrying troops to the next island just east of where the first Terran base once was.

The next base that was targeted had a mix of Terran and Zerg structures on it. By the time Lyra’s forces were ready to attack, the air force had a significant number of Scouts and Corsairs. A few Carriers were brought in to support the frontal air attack. The sheer power of the Protoss fleet knocked a number of Valkyries and Devourers out of the sky while Disruption Webs prevented ground support from the UED. Dark Archons were deployed, supported by Lyra, Vorazun and Zeratul. The Dark Archons took control of a pair of Siege Tanks in the area and added their firepower to the mayhem. Vorazun cut a swathe through the Zerg and Terran forces while Lyra did the same with her Storm Charge technique where she dashed forward while unleashing psionic lightning around her.

The ships moved to block any further transports and enemy ships from getting past them from the island where the Overmind was nesting.

An Observer picked up a rich resource cluster ripe for the harvest. Since some of the other clusters were mined out, Lyra had the Probes transported to the cluster while a few scouts cleared the area of Lurker holes. With a new forward position established, Arbiters were deployed to the area to recall ground troops to their location. This time the group consisted of Lyra, Vorazun, Zeratul, as well as nearly every type of attacking ground troops they had available.

Once ready, the assault began on the final position of the UED. Disruption Webs made defending difficult while Reavers attacked from afar. Dark Archons brainwashed the captains of a pair of Battlecruisers and turned them against their own people. Dark Templars sliced through flesh and metal alike while Archons unleashed their wrath against Terrans and Zerg alike. The hum of Zealot blades was like a song of war backed by the rhythm of impacts caused by the cannons of Dragoons.

The Protoss soon found the Overmind in front of them, defenseless, unlike the previous one. The Nerazim went to work severing tendrils and slicing into the thick flesh of the fledgling Overmind which was writhing in pain for a few minutes before it slumped over and stopped moving.

Discovering their means to control the Zerg was now dead, the remnants of the UED retreated back to the fleet.

The Protoss celebrated their victory, though Lyra was greatly concerned about what would happen in the future now that Kerrigan had control of every Zerg in the Koprulu sector.

With their task done, Lyra and the Protoss returned to Shakuras to prepare themselves in case Kerrigan decided to pay them a visit.

Kerrigan was sitting on her throne in a hive on Tarsonis. She had just sent her minions to kill a large team of UED scientists who were extending the control of the Overmind to the planet. At one point, the Zerg under the UED’s control stopped attacking her swarm and started obeying her commands. It didn’t take long for her to realize that the Overmind’s control was severed and that either meant that it was incapacitated or dead. Given how much Sweetie Drops had been messing with her emotions lately, she assumed the latter.

After the events on Korhal, Kerrigan was weary from the battle. The rage-fueled scream she made had also drained her emotionally. At this point, she wasn’t in the mood to feel anything for a while.

“My Queen, somehow all of the Zerg in the sector have reverted to your direct control. Could the Overmind and its Cerebrates have somehow been destroyed?” Duran asked.

“Most likely, although this does save me the effort of using the Protoss to do my dirty work, since they did so of their own free will, it still leaves me feeling empty. Without the anguished feelings of my enemies, It feels like they willingly gave me the Swarm on a silver platter, as if I was taking their charity.”

“Shall I rally our forces for an assault on Shakuras?”

“No, I will deal with them in time. For now, I need to be alone with my thoughts. Leave me.”

“As you wish.” With that, Duran left Kerrigan’s side. Deciding that things were going according to his master’s plan with regards to the Queen of Blades, Duran decided that he no longer needed to keep a watch on her. It was time to move on to the next phase of his master’s grand scheme.

Author's Note

Yes, I did turn "To Slay the Beast" into a Protoss mission and effectively prevented the events of "Drawing of the Web" and "The Reckoning (BW)" in one chapter.

UED: Machinations of the Xel'naga

In transit to Shakuras, Zeratul asked Sweetie a question that had been plaguing his mind since the Overmind was slain, “Are you certain that allowing Kerrigan to control the totality of the Zerg Swarm was a good idea?”

Sweetie sighed, “I don’t know, what I do know is that the UED was playing with forces they do not understand. Frankly, they should have left matters in the Koprulu sector alone.”

Zeratul hummed. “You almost sound as if you possess some understanding of the Zerg.”

“Maybe it had to do with controlling Zerg minds,” Sweetie hastily responded.

Zeratul narrowed his eyes, “You might have some skill in concealing your thoughts, but I can still sense that you are hiding something.”

Sweetie could tell that she was beginning to lose Zeratul’s trust. The aged Dark Templar was more insightful than she gave him credit. If she wanted to keep any form of trust with him, she may have to take a big risk and reveal her source of information. If she kept her secret, the situation may worsen over time.

After taking a deep breath, Sweetie led Zeratul to a place where she could talk to him in private, placing the usual wards.

“What I’m about to tell you cannot be told to the others, the only other one who knows is Lyra. I’m risking a lot by telling you and, no offense, but your race does tend to be headstrong.” Although she couldn’t see it, Sweetie could tell that Zeratul was rolling his eyes.

Taking one more deep breath, Sweetie revealed the existence of the Overmind parasite to Zeratul, how it provided her with its ancient knowledge such as the origin of the Zerg, the purpose of the Overmind, the altered destiny of the Zerg, and the name of the one who turned the Zerg against the Protoss, Amon.

“And you expect me to believe this? Madness! Still, if what you said was true, then our true enemy would be the very Xel’naga that sired our race eons ago. But why would they turn against their own creations?”

“I don’t know if everything it said was true, but it claimed that Amon disliked the independent thinking of the Protoss, that somehow that way of thinking was a nuisance to his plans. It claimed that the purpose of the Protoss was as a mere part of his scheme to recreate the universe as he wanted by combining the Zerg and Protoss into his ultimate soldiers.”

“This is ill news indeed. But tell me, where does Kerrigan fit into all of this? I have noticed that you had more than one opportunity to eliminate her, but you didn’t.”

Sweetie explained to Zeratul the act of rebellion that the Overmind had committed against Amon, Kerrigan’s importance in preventing Amon’s plan from succeeding, and the consequences of killing her, adding to the explanation of why Sweetie avoided killing the Queen of Blades whenever she had the chance. She ended her explanation by revealing her suspicions of Duran.

Zeratul had a lot to consider. He was unsure how much was true and how much was lies created by the Overmind to lead both of them astray. He would need time to sort the facts out.

Upon exiting the room, Zeratul and Sweetie were greeted by Vorazun who told them to meet her at the bridge of the Gantrithor.

Sweetie and Zeratul arrived on the bridge to find Vorazun, Lyra and Raszagal. Sweetie noticed that Raszagal was not looking well. Vorazun was also visibly concerned for her mother. However, Raszagal’s condition would have to wait as the meeting began.

“Our sensors indicate Protoss power signatures emanating from an uncharted moon nearby,” Vorazun began. Our records do not indicate that there has ever been a Protoss settlement in this quadrant. Zeratul, Sweetie, Lyra, I need you to investigate the source of the energy signatures on the dark moon.”

“It will be done, Matriarch,” Zeratul acknowledged.

“Also, our sensors indicate a small Terran compound near the energy signatures. Be on your guard, everyone.”

Zeratul, Sweetie and Lyra took a group of Dark Archons to assist them in the investigation. The first Terrans that they encountered were a group of Marines with a pair of Siege Tanks nearby. Lyra eliminated the Terrans in one swing of her warp blades while the Dark Archons took control of the Siege Tanks. A Science Vessel arrived to investigate the disturbance only for the pilot of that vessel to be controlled.

A group of Marines by a Missile Turret was their next obstacle. The Science Vessel lured the Marines toward it and to their doom under the fire of Siege Tank shells. Zeratul saw a stasis cell nearby and moved in to examine it and discovered that there was a Protoss in the cell. The computer sent out an alert that Test Subject Twenty-Three was suffering from psychic feedback and the body was falling apart. The test subject faded away in a burst of light.

A mystery had made itself known to the group: Why were the Terrans imprisoning Protoss in stasis cells? They would need to move even deeper into the compound to uncover the mystery.

DuGalle was at a loss about what had happened. As fast as his expeditionary force had taken Korhal and the Overmind, they were taken away just as quickly. Why the Protoss would concern themselves over Terran matters was beyond him. He had expected that abomination, Kerrigan, to be the one to take on his forces on Char.

Unfortunately, he was left with a difficult decision to make: He could go after the Protoss who had ruined everything for the UED or he could try to avenge the death of his old friend, Stukov. After thinking it over for a while, he finally came to a decision. He took the last of the Expeditionary Force and set course for Char.

The Science Vessel scouted ahead and found a Siege Tank on the high ground, A Dark Archon took control of the tank which, in turn, turned its cannon against the Terrans.

A line of Photon Cannons was their next obstacle with another stasis cell beyond it. The controlled Siege Tanks made quick work of the cannons while Lyra and Sweetie took care of any incoming troops. A Battlecruiser made its presence known to everyone and was quickly locked down by Sweetie while a Dark Archon took control of it.

While they waited for the lockdown to wear off, Zeratul investigated the nearby stasis cell. The computer was in the middle of gathering data on Test Subject Twenty-Five. Zeratul released the High Templar from the cell. The Templar was grateful for the save and agreed to assist in the mission.

Kerrigan was concerned with the current situation she was in. Two Terran fleets from different factions were detected heading directly for her staging area. Her forces had not completed the exodus from Tarsonis to Char and Duran had mysteriously disappeared, leaving her and the Cerebrate that she had taken from the fledgling Overmind not long ago. She was about to be forced to defend against whatever ships that Arcturus had managed to scrape up and what was left of the UED.

Kerrigan received a transmission from Arcturus, <”Hello Kerrigan, have I caught you at a bad time.”> Mengsk was not even trying to hide his malice.

“Not at all, Arcturus,” Kerrigan said while playing along with the banter. “How’d you manage to scrape up your new fleet? Been raiding the salvage dumps again?”

<”I called in a few favors. Made a few concessions. You’d be surprised to see how many special interest groups in this sector want to see you dead.”>

“I’m sorry to disappoint your new friends, Arcturus. But you really shouldn’t have attempted this stunt. It’ll take more than you and the UED to bring me down.”

“Gee, that’s a tough one, Admiral,” Kerrigan took on a gleeful tone. “You’ll have to let me think for a minute...You know, Admiral, I think I’ll just massacre your remaining troops now and watch you die in agony. How would that be?”

DuGalle scoffed as he believed that Kerrigan’s chances of overcoming the both of them were miniscule at best.

“You see, at this point...” Kerrigan continued “...now that I have the entire Swarm at my command, none of you will ever stand in my way again.”

Tearing through a site that housed more Terran troops and another stasis cell, Sweetie took a look at the cell and found a Terran that had his genetic code rewritten by Zerg DNA. Taking on the form of an Infested Terran, Sweetie suggested not letting the creature out and moved on.

On a hill overlooking the small camp was a simple Science Facility along with a lone civilian and SCV as well as another stasis cell. A Dark Archon took control of the SCV pilot and had him repair any damage to the stolen vehicles while Zeratul worked to free the captive in the cell near the Science Facility which turned out to be an Archon.

This intrigued Sweetie a little since Archons usually do not live very long without their rage. This left her a little curious about the implications of stasis technology.

A walled section had groups of Marines on top of it as well as a patrolling Science Vessel. Since they didn’t need another Science Vessel, a Dark Archon caused its energy core to feed back into itself which caused a huge explosion that destroyed the Vessel. Two more Dark Archons froze the two Marine groups on the walls with a Maelstrom while Lyra and Sweetie unleashed Psionic Storms on them, searing them from within their armor.

Zeratul examined the stasis cell that the Marines were guarding and discovered Zerglings in the cell. Sweetie finally put it together and discovered the purpose of the facility: the Terrans in the compound were performing genetic engineering on Protoss and Zerg.

The Computer mentioned the subject in the tank being Test Subject Twenty-Seven and that data was being taken of the subject. There was also mention of gene splicing between subjects twenty-five and twenty-seven. When information from the Overmind about bringing Protoss and Zerg together came to mind, Sweetie realized that the facility was creating some sort of Protoss-Zerg Hybrid. She whispered to Zeratul, “I think we may find proof to my claims here.”

His once proud fleet lay in ruins. His own pride in tatters and his best friend’s death was in vain. DuGalle was left with no other option left but to surrender the battle to Kerrigan. He begged for his men to be spared, but she would not even grant him that. As his broken and battered fleet made a desperate attempt to retreat back to Earth, Kerrigan, ever fond of the hunt, gave his fleet a head start before she dealt the coup de gras.

The way to the remaining section of the facility was guarded by Ghosts, Wraiths, Siege Tanks and Battlecruisers. The might of the Dark Archons was put to full use as Ghosts had their heads exploded from psychic feedback and the energy cores of Wraiths were detonated by the same effect. Battlecruiser commanders were brainwashed and ground troops were frozen in Maelstrom and fried in psychic electricity. Siege Tanks were obliterated by the weaponry used by brainwashed Terrans.

With the way clear, Zeratul, Lyra and Sweetie moved in to examine the last stasis cell. Sweetie gasped as the form in the stasis cell brought back recent memories.

“I’ve...I’ve never seen a creature like this before…” Zeratul commented.

“I have,” Sweetie spoke. “I had seen these creatures in the Overmind’s vision of the end. This is one of Amon’s ultimate soldiers.”

“Now now, Sweetie Drops. Nobody likes spoilers.” Spoke a mysterious voice. “I don’t know how you managed to learn about my master or his creations, but it matters not. I have seeded these Hybrid across the stars and you will never find them all in time.”

“Who are you?” Zeratul asked.

“I have had many names throughout the millennia, young prodigal. You would know me best as Samir Duran.”

“Answer me this, Duran,” said Sweetie. “You’re a Xel’naga aren’t you?”

“You appear to know more than I thought. Yes, I am one of the ascended. I am but a mere servant to my great master Amon. Even if you know about me, my master, or my master’s great plan, you are too late to stop it. His plan is already in motion. And once the Hybrid awaken, your universe will be changed...forever.” With that, Duran had completely disappeared. Zeratul, Sweetie and Lyra quickly eliminated the sleeping Hybrid.

“Believe me now?” Sweetie asked Zeratul.

“Even if we work together to defeat the Hybrid armies, how can we convince Kerrigan to go along with this?”

“I’m afraid that I don’t have the answer to that right now. Since Amon has poisoned her thoughts, we would need to find a way to restore her mind and right now I have no idea on how we’re gonna do that.”

“Then we have no choice but to wait and hope that something turns up.”

“Agreed.”

DuGalle sat alone in his personal quarters. He knew that his fleet would never make it back to Earth in time before the Swarm overtook the last of his fleet. It was only a matter of time before Mengsk’s ragtag fleet fell apart as well. The impossibly heavy burden of guilt over ordering Alexei’s death was too much to bear. With death as the inevitable outcome, the only act of defiance against the Queen of Blades that he could make at this point would be to go out on his own terms.

He wrote a farewell letter to his wife:

"Dearest Helena: By now, the news of our defeat has reached the Earth. The creatures we were sent here to tame are untamable, and the colonies we were sent to reclaim have proven to be stronger than we anticipated. Whatever you may hear about what has happened out here, know this: Alexei did not die gloriously in battle. I killed him. My pride killed him. And now my pride has consumed me as well. You will never see me again, Helena. Tell our children that I love them, and that their father died in defense of their future. Au revoir."

DuGalle opened a box that contained a Luger 9mm pistol. He loaded one bullet into the chamber. He then pointed the barrel to the to his temple and squeezed the trigger...or at least tried as his body had suddenly stopped obeying his command.

He realized that his entire body was locked up somehow. He heard footsteps behind him, but he was unable to look. He soon heard a familiar voice whisper in his ear. “Ah ah ah...I am afraid that your suffering has only begun. I could always use another test subject. My master is very interested in how Kerrigan is able to resist his commands and you will aid him one way or another.”

DuGalle’s vision flashed into a world of white and quickly faded to black.

Author's Note

This concludes the Brood War section of the story.

Interlude: Resurrection

Lyra, Sweetie and the Protoss returned to Shakuras without incident. While everyone was celebrating the return of the heroes who eliminated the last bastion of power that the UED had in the sector and the slaying of the new Overmind, three of them had other thoughts on their mind.

On the way back to Shakuras, the three of them discovered a Hybrid research facility and discovered that Duran was spearheading the project. Given that he was a Xel’naga, it stood to reason that he had millennia to advance his master’s plan in secret.

Sweetie convinced everyone to keep the matter of the Hybrid a secret for the time being since the Khalai were going to be busy rebuilding their civilization and they didn’t need the knowledge of their own creator seeking their destruction until they were ready to face his forces.

The strangest thing was that they were able to spend a couple of weeks on Shakuras without some sort of incident occurring. Raynor tuned in to the UNN broadcast to see if the Dominion knew of what was going on beyond Shakuras.

According to the news, there were no signs of any significant Zerg movement. There were also rumors that Mengsk had launched a desperate assault against Kerrigan’s Swarm while coordinating with the last of the UED. The attack failed miserably and the UED expeditionary force was completely wiped out.

Raynor was saddened to see the UED go out like it did. If there was one man among them that he respected, it was Vice Admiral Stukov. Despite the few interactions that he had with the man, Raynor had the impression that he was a man of honor.

Raynor quickly grew bored of the lull in Zerg activity and decided to take the fight to them for a time. Since Sweetie was still second-in-command of the Raiders, she had her own duties to the rebel organization; duties that she had been putting off for months since their disastrous first visit to Char. Against Lyra’s protests, Sweetie left Shakuras with Raynor. Lyra wanted to go with her, but Sweetie wanted her to stay with the Protoss since they were her friends. Since the Protoss and Raynor were friends, Sweetie would be able to visit her whenever she wanted and vice versa.

Raynor left Shakuras in order to resume his activities of protecting people from the Zerg and gather allies that bear anti-Dominion sentiment before he could launch any sort of campaign against the megalomaniacal Emperor.

A week had passed since Raynor had parted ways with the Protoss, Raynor had heard some disturbing rumors. They say that there were renegade Terrans out there who were conducting research on using Zerg genomes to resurrect the dead. There were even rumors that originated from pirates that there were sightings of an infested human that bore a strong resemblance to Vice Admiral Alexei Stukov. He also heard that some Zerg Cerebrate named Kaloth was the one responsible for his revival and infestation.

Zerg activity had hit an all time low for much of the Koprulu sector, which is not to say it was zero. There have also been rumors of Kerrigan performing small scale operations, but nothing too disruptive of the recovering stability around the sector.

After the fall of the UED expeditionary force, any soldiers left behind quickly adapted themselves to life among the colonies. Raynor had brought on a number of medical soldiers into his organization to reduce the mortality rate of troops in the field.

Raynor had received a transmission from Tassadar who told him to return to Shakuras for an important matter. Sweetie didn’t think she would be seeing Lyra again so soon.

Once Raynor arrived on Shakuras, he and Sweetie were briefed on what would happen next.

“Well Tassadar, you called and I came. What’s the haps?” Raynor said.

Tassadar expressed his amusement at Raynor’s informal nature before his expression became serious again. “There is a great danger for both our people. Our old nemesis, Vice Admiral Stukov, has returned to finish his original plans. As you are well aware, Vice Admiral Stukov was infested by the Zerg Cerebrate, Kaloth. The Cerebrate used his own cells to regenerate Stukov’s own cells to revive him. Now, he lords over his own secret Brood.”

“So, we’re gonna go down and kill him, is that it?” Raynor asked.

“Actually, we came up with a way that might save him,” Lyra said before Tassadar could respond. “Protoss scientists have developed a radical Nanotech Serum that might be able to reverse the infestation in Stukov. We tracked his movements to the planet Braxis. Unfortunately, with a Zerg Brood on the planet, we will have to purify it once the operation is complete. Bon Bon told me that you have medics in your ranks now. We need their services to help us test the new Serum on Stukov.”

“Hell, sounds worth a try,” Raynor said. While he was hoping for the serum to work, he also held another hope: If the serum can eliminate the Zerg virus in Stukov, it might be able to do the same for Kerrigan. “So, will I be gettin’ some back up from Zeratul?”

“I’m afraid not, Zeratul went off somewhere to find some more information about what we found a few weeks ago,” Lyra responded. She wasn’t about to tell Raynor about the Hybrid, that honor would be Bon Bon’s. “You will be accompanied by myself, Bon Bon and Fenix for this mission.”

Raynor, Fenix and the Ponies were deployed near Stukov’s base of operations. Raynor brought a Ghost and a few medics with him while Fenix brought Dragoons, a Dark Templar and a Dark Archon.

After clearing a Bunker, and a few renegade Marines and Firebats, a Civilian offered his assistance by claiming that he was a tank driver and that he knew where to find one. Zerglings and Hydralisks were popping up from the ground to ambush the group but Lyra quickly dismembered and decapitated them.

A nearby Command Center was burning down with an unmanned Siege Tank next to it. The Civilian quickly boarded the vehicle and turned it on before rallying with Raynor.

Exploring further, they found a small Protoss outpost that had an Archon, an Observer and a pair of Zealots guarding it. The defenders offered their assistance to the attack.

Beyond the outpost was a group of Zerg and a considerable number of Infested Terrans roaming the area. The group managed to survive the onslaught. Even though a few managed to blow themselves up, for some reason their explosions weren’t as potent as the usual variety of infested.

An infested outpost awaited the group. At the same time, Sweetie couldn’t help but wonder why uninfested Terrans would be helping an infested Terran like Stukov. Of course, if they were mercenaries, then it would make sense to her since they would do anything as long as you paid them.

The group moved on after burning down the outpost. A ramp up a hill was well guarded by Bunkers and Siege Tanks, but no Missile Turrets. Instead, a patrolling Science Vessel was their only means of stealth detection. Taking advantage of the patrol pattern, Lyra and the Dark Templar moved up the ramp and sliced the main turrets off the Siege Tanks before the rest powered through the Bunkers. Sweetie locked down the Science Vessel so the Dark Archon had time to blow up the Vessel with a Psychic Feedback.

A friendly Terran outpost was on top of the hill with a Goliath and Siege Tank ready to assist them.

The group continued pushing through the variety of enemy forces and some mercenaries who wanted to defect because they feared for their lives when they realized that Stukov was crazy.

A facility was ahead that had some powerful defenses that would not be bypassed easily. A nearby outpost had lighter defenses with only a Science Vessel. The Dark Archon took out the Vessel while Lyra and the Dark Templar took down the rest. Using what she learned of Protoss consoles, she released a pair of Dark Templar from a stasis cell.

A Teleport Pad was nearby to use. Lyra took the Dark Templar to the other side of the Teleporter to check out what was there. To her surprise, Lyra found a terminal that was linked to the frontal defenses of the facility. Accessing the terminal, Lyra turned off the defenses and retreated back through the Teleporter to return to their friends.

The Siege Tanks had taken out some of the outlying turrets while the Dark Templar were away. Once they returned, they quickly laid waste to the enemy tanks guarding the facility before raiding the insides of the Bunkers, painting the inside of them red before everyone moved into the facility.

A Plasma Field was the next defense to deal with. Sweetie rushed past the field before it could roast her flesh. She accessed the terminal on the other side and disabled the field, allowing everyone to enter the facility.

There was hardly anything worthy of note in the facility. The defenses were easily dealt with by locking down a Siege Tank while Lyra’s stealth group slashed apart Goliaths while Siege Tanks blasted targets from far away.

Another strong defense was in their way and another conveniently placed Teleporter was nearby that would lead to another defense terminal to deactivate, leaving Sweetie to facepalm at the stupidity of the people who designed the place.

Raynor ran into one of his old friends, some fire-loving guy named Bud Morris, as well as a disgraced Archon.

Eventually, after pushing through the last of the defenses, they came across the location of Stukov, who had taken notice of the invaders and set a pair of Ultralisks upon them. Without detection support, Lyra and the Dark Templar quickly butchered the hulking beasts.

After clearing the last of the defenses around Stukov, Sweetie and Lyra held him in place while a Medic injected him with the Serum.

“Release me! You have no idea of what-,” was all Stukov managed to say before the injection.

“No! You will not wrest me from the Swarm! I will...we will...nooo!” he continued.

“Take it easy. Just let it all happen,” Raynor said.

Stukov began to lament the loss of what he felt was a great feeling. Afterward, with his mind his own again, he led everyone to a series of evacuation transports.

Once everyone was aboard and away from the planet, Lyra informed Tassadar that everyone was clear of the planet. The familiar sight of planetary purification was once again shown to everyone who watched as the arctic world was met with a bombardment of photon energies.

Author's Note

This mission was based off the N64 Starcraft map, Resurrection IV.

Interbellum: Separate Ways

After the purification of Braxis and the death of the Cerebrate Kaloth, Raynor, Sweetie, Lyra, Fenix and Stukov retreated to the Hyperion for debriefing. Afterward, while Sweetie and Lyra were enjoying each other’s company, Raynor had given Stukov to some reputable research organization called the Moebius Foundation and its leader, Emil Narud.

The Hyperion returned to Shakuras to enjoy the fleeting time of rest between missions.

Their time of rest was short lived, however. The day after their return, Sweetie noticed Vorazun was displaying a skin color that Lyra told her was sadness. When Sweetie asked the Matriarch what was wrong, she barely responded, showing that she was emotionally distant.

Lyra asked around and noticed that many of the Nerazim were as sad as Vorazun. Finally, she saw Fenix who was still emotionally stable. She approached the Dragoon to ask why the Nerazim were sad.

“You haven’t heard? The former Matriarch, Raszagal, is showing signs of failing health. There is nothing that can be done.”

Lyra’s eyes widened at the realization that she was losing one of her friends among the Protoss. Tears started to well up in her eyes.

“It is quite rare for a Protoss to live out their entire lifespan. The average lifespan of a Protoss is a thousand years, she is to be commended for living for as long as she has.”

After a few moments of silence, Fenix walked away. Lyra collected Sweetie and the two of them walked to the building that housed the ailing former Matriarch.

Inside, they found Zeratul and Vorazun along with another Protoss that they had never seen before. Once the three of them noticed their entry, the unknown Protoss introduced himself as Prelate Mohandar.

The five of them stood around the dying Raszagal as she spoke, “Thank you for being with me in my final hour. It fills me with joy to know that the future of my people are safe in your hands. Lyra Heartstrings, the greatest joy you could give me is proof that a sister can come from anywhere, even beyond our species. Sweetie Drops, it is because of your insight and cunning that our future looks brighter than it would otherwise.” She turned back to the Protoss. “It is my wish that our two tribes, both Khalai and Nerazim be truly reunited.”

At that moment, Tassadar, Artanis, and Aldaris entered the room and took their place around Raszagal. She continued, “I thank you for coming here. My time draws near so I will be brief. As former Matriarch of the Dark Templar and one who remembered our people for who they once were, my last wish is for the Khalai and the Nerazim to once more unite. If not for the future of our people, then for the threats left unvanquished that neither can defeat alone.” Raszagal’s body began to glow. White flames began dancing along her body. The flames intensified and engulfed her body. Then suddenly, the flames disappeared with the body of Raszagal.

Sweetie and Lyra held each other for a few minutes, tears flowing from both of them.

After an hour of grieving, everyone left to spread word of Raszagal’s passing. The next few days were uneventful as everyone grieved in their own way.

Soon enough, the time had come for Raynor’s Raiders to leave Shakuras to continue their activities.

As Sweetie and Raynor began boarding the Hyperion, everyone suddenly froze in place, except for Sweetie and Lyra. Sweetie continued observing her friend holding an unnatural pose, even waving a hand in his face. Lyra started poking everyone to get a reaction out of them.

Sweetie then sighed, there was only one being that she knew that could cause everyone around them to freeze in time while actually being capable of coming to the Koprulu sector. “Alright Discord, you’ve had your fun, now what do you want?”

Discord appeared in front of Sweetie with a half eaten bowl of popcorn. “I was wondering how long it would take for you to figure it out. It was quite entertaining watching Lyra poke everyone. By the way, they are going to feel those when I unfreeze them.” Lyra started grinning nervously.

“Yes, yes, I’m sure it’ll be funny soon,” Sweetie said noncommittally with an eye roll for dramatic effect. “Now can you tell me why you’re here? You’re not here to recall us back to Equestria are you?”

“Oh my, no!” Discord quickly said. “I have been watching your journey the whole time.” He leaned his head close to Sweetie, “Like what you did with the Ion Cannon, by the way. And the times you humiliated the misguided Queen of Blades, I simply had to record those.” Clearing his throat he continued speaking to both Ponies, “Your journey, at this point, is hitting a slow, boring point, far too much routine. I am here to jazz things up.” Snapping his talons, jazz music played in the background.

“How are you going to do that?” Lyra asked. “Our time here has been all about killing Zerg, some Terrans and the occasional Protoss.”

“Well, my dear, since the next war isn’t supposed to happen for another four years, about the time when those freaky lab experiments wake up, why not take the time to explore the sector a little; make some new friends, earn a few new enemies, maybe make some money or hone your skills, take over a planet. Just don’t fall into a routine or you may find yourself woefully unprepared for the battles yet to come.”

Sweetie considered what the draconequus said and she knew that he was right, they couldn’t afford to stop moving forward and simply wait for the next war. But the next question that came out of her mouth would determine the course of the next four years for them. “Can we get a little guidance? Where do we need to go next to prepare?”

“What fun would it be to tell you where to go? Just enjoy the time you have with your friends, but I suppose I can give you a vague clue. Consider these my rewards for you for surviving the Great War and the Brood War.” Discord gave Sweetie a simple playing card, the Queen of Spades. Next he filled Lyra’s pocket dimension with a huge number of a strange, glowing substance that was crystalline in form.

“The playing card is your hint, Sweetie Drops. The crystals are useful for powering up ancient ships.”

“Mysterious as ever, huh Discord?” Sweetie said rhetorically.

With a snap of his fingers, Discord disappeared. Everything returned to normal immediately. The Protoss looked around for the source of whoever poked them, only to find nothing. Shrugging, the Protoss went about their business.

Sweetie boarded the Hyperion with Raynor. Once aboard, Matt Horner began the sequence for takeoff. The Hyperion lifts off and escapes the gravitational field of Shakuras.

Raynor’s Raiders continued their activities as usual. The organization developed a reputation for saving lives, which played against Mengsk’s propaganda a little.

Eventually, the Raiders were invited to Deadman’s Port to get in touch with the local mercenary network. Since the Raiders needed Credits to function as an organization, they would, at times, take on contracts to earn their money.

Matt took some of their earned credits and brought Sweetie along to play a game of Poker with some of the mercenaries. Unfortunately for the mercs, they weren’t expecting Matt to bring a Ghost.

Among the mercenaries that Matt and Sweetie were playing against was one with pink hair, one green eye and the other was an ocular implant. The mercenary introduced herself as Mira Han, leader of a growing mercenary group called Mira’s Marauders.

Thinking about the card that Discord gave her, Sweetie figured that she might gain something important from the mercenaries. Borrowing some Credits from Matt, Sweetie joined in.

Matt won most of the hands. Knowing this, Mira, who thought Matt was kinda cute, offered herself as a wager. Matt ended up winning the hand and ended up in a marriage contract with Mira.

Sweetie decided that since she needed to investigate Discord’s hint and because the Raiders needed the money, made a deal with Mira.

“Mira, the Raiders are a bit short on funds. To earn them some more Credits, I’m willing to work with you for a time. But first, how about a wager: I win the next hand and I decide the terms, you win and you get to decide the terms.”

“Hmm...an interesting proposition. You wish to work as one of my mercenaries, It is not often that a Ghost chooses to work for me. *sigh* You have no idea how difficult it is for me to keep any Ghosts on my payroll. Very well, the wagers are made. Let’s deal the cards.”

Each were given five cards. Sweetie discarded two and Mira discarded three. After drawing until each had five cards again, both had revealed their hands. Both had a full house, except Mira had three tens and two jacks while Sweetie had three queens and two jacks, Sweetie won the hand and the chance to name the terms of the contract.

Sweetie made sure the contract was on a three year term and added a provision that in the event a mission that involved the Protoss, Sweetie was not to be involved since she didn’t want to fight Lyra or her friends.

Once signed, Sweetie told Matt to tell Raynor that she would be gone for a while as she did some mercenary work by herself to fund the Raider’s future operations.

Lyra had been given her first mission to complete without her friends helping her, while she was nervous as she had never led a mission before, she swore not to let down those who had given her this mission.

Her mission was to investigate the activities of a renegade Protoss tribe called the Tal’darim. They had been going around spreading the influence of Terrazine to other worlds and causing some of the victims to show psychotic behavior.

Lyra had encountered the Tal’darim before, though the only encounter was when she was high on Terrazine and the meeting was the exact opposite of civil.

With the fleet underway, Lyra sped off to her first personal mission.

Interbellum: Life of a Mercenary

While Raynor understood the need for Credits to help the Raiders buy what they need for future missions, Raynor still had reservations about Sweetie joining a mercenary corps. He also noticed that Matt was unusually adamant about leaving Deadman’s Port as fast as possible. He would ask him about that later.

With no other business left, the Hyperion left the port, leaving Sweetie behind with Mira Han, or Mira Horner whenever she needed an alias.

“So…” Mira began. “...Let’s start the interview, this will determine what jobs we will have available to you in the future. You can meet your coworkers after this. First of all, which Ghost academy did you come from?”

“I never trained at a Ghost academy,” Sweetie responded. “So far the training I received from my home planet had been adequate for what I’ve done so far.”

“I see...Matthew said that you are Raynor’s right hand. You must be quite impressive to get someone like James to acknowledge your skills. What all have you done to earn your position.”

“Honestly, I’ve only had my psychic powers for about a year now. I met Jim last year on Mar Sara, got into a bar fight, buried a few people in walls, and he made me his deputy because of it.

“Since then, I’ve had to deal with Zerg almost every day, the idiotic regulations of the Confederacy when I found out they were weaponizing them, and joined the Sons of Korhal for a time before I officially became a Ghost.

Perhaps what really clinched my position was when I infiltrated Tarsonis’ ion cannon, planted a Trojan and turned the cannon against the Sons of Korhal when we decided to defect after Tarsonis.”

“Wait, you were there for the fall of Tarsonis?” Mira interrupted. “You must tell me more later, I know a few sources that would pay good money for information from an eyewitness. Just how much did you see?”

“Everything, including Mengsk’s actions that caused the Zerg to flood to Tarsonis, as well as how the Queen of Blades came to be.” Sweetie stated.

Mira wore an uncomfortably wicked grin, “You are going to be a very rich Pony before our contract is over.” Mira reined in her expression. “Tell me something you have done before that no other Ghost has done.”

“Well, I am pretty much the Queen of Blades’ arch nemesis at this point. Makes sense after I blew one of her wings off one time, shot off one of her arms another time, tipped off the Dominion when she was trying to pull off a sneak attack against them, and humiliated her a couple of times.”

Mira smirked, “You talk a big game for you to anger one of the most dangerous people in the sector. I would think that you’d want to lay low after all of that. The fact that you are still active is a testament to your boldness.”

“I also learned a few things from a Protoss High Templar.”

“Okay, okay, stop! Stop before you become too valuable for me to afford. You’re in.”

Sweetie giggled. “So, when do I start.”

Sweetie was taken to Mira’s hideout where she was introduced to a number of mercenaries that displayed varying levels of shadiness. Some of them thought that Mira was joking when she brought a Pony into the group. Some thought Sweetie was some sort of mascot Mira brought in for comic relief. Others still waived it off as one of Mira’s crazy whims.

The mockery came to an end when one of the mercenaries got a little too close to Sweetie’s personal space which resulted in him getting an uppercut to his jaw and rocketed him to the ceiling. Once he came down, everyone noticed the damage. The man was bleeding from the top of his head while also bleeding from his mouth as a result of several missing teeth.

The unfortunate man was taken to the medical room for examination. After that, the other mercenaries backed away from her, impressed by her strength.

Noticing a bar nearby, Sweetie decides to see if the mercenaries at least had decent selection.

Over the next few months, Sweetie had been doing a number of missions from various clients that range from data retrieval and information gathering to assassinations and sabotage. A lot of these missions were similar to the kind of work that she did as an agent, even if she had no idea that some of her work involved killing or finding blackmail against some of Blueblood’s political opponents.

Some of her earnings went to fund Mira’s organization which was used to upgrade equipment such as their medical facilities. Sweetie also ended up learning Mira’s honor code which she kept in mind in the event that she would need Mira’s services for something important.

Thanks to Sweetie’s work, she also became the highest contributing mercenary among Mira’s Marauders. Because of this, Mira granted Sweetie one favor to use in the future. Sweetie would hold on to the favor until she really needed it.

As her mercenary career gained fame, Sweetie was allowed a name for herself to sell to clients. Mira suggested ‘Thestral’ due to an old legend that those who saw one had experienced death. To make sure the name stuck, the other mercenaries spread the legend among the colonies to make sure that everyone knew what a thestral was.

A number of Sweetie’s missions had her dealing with the Dominion, one way or another. Sometimes she would be assisting Dominion Ghosts on a mission or she would be stealing Dominion weapon designs and blowing up facilities.

Other missions had to do with Zerg cleanup. She was amused when she took control of a few Ultralisks as they tore through hive clusters. With her thirty underling limit Sweetie was able to take control of five Ultralisks at best. She would make the most of her ability.

Over time, Sweetie was actually happy to relive her old days. After S.M.I.L.E was destroyed, she had resigned herself to the fate that her days of excitement were behind her too soon.

During one of her sabotage missions, Sweetie received a signal from the device that she attached to her rifle, the T.N.O.D. The device was pointing to a Dominion Nuclear Silo. When she activated the device, it allowed her to remotely hack into the Silo. With a mischievous smirk, Sweetie activated her laser targeting device and pointed it at a spot where she could do the most damage. Just like she figured, the hacked Nuclear Silo launched its payload and the missile landed a few seconds later annihilating a good chunk of the Dominion base. She realized then what the acronym T.N.O.D stood for: Tactical Nuclear Override Device. The device would allow her to hack into any nuclear silo in an area and steal control of the Nuclear Missile within.

Over her three year long mercenary career, Sweetie had racked up a small fortune in Credits from her jobs. Mira’s Marauders also became one of the most popular mercenary groups in the Koprulu sector. Sweetie made sure Mira kept her true identity a secret from Mengsk, though she had a feeling that the Emperor already knew because of that fact that Mengsk was as intelligent as was insane, especially since the name ‘Thestral’ was a dead giveaway.

The reason that Sweetie wanted to have the contract last three years was because she wanted to explore the Koprulu sector a little before she returned to Raynor for the war that Discord mentioned.

The year 2504 came quickly and Sweetie was given one last job before the contract expired. Sweetie was unwilling to have it extended for any reason due to her agenda.

Her last mission with them was to investigate some pirates that, rumors had said, were seeking special substances called Jorium and Terrazine. Sweetie, obviously, had heard of Jorium since it was what gave her her psychic powers in the first place. Terrazine was mentioned by Lyra about being some sort of psychic enhancement substance that enhanced her magic and left her with mental clarity when the initial effects wore off.

As she considers the implications of Terrazine, she begins to wonder if the substance was the catalyst that she was looking for. She decided to ask the Overmind, “What do you know about Terrazine? Would I be able to use it to enhance my ability to control Zerg?”

~”You should know that answer to that. The testimony of Lyra Heartstrings should be proof enough of the effects if you believe in her as much as you say. As for what Terrazine is, it allows those who inhale it to witness visions created by the void itself. The Protoss claim that they can commune with Amon while exposed to the substance.

~”There is a faction of Protoss who are blindly loyal to Amon, calling themselves the Tal’darim or The Forged. Unlike the Khalai and Nerazim tribes, the Tal’darim channel their power directly from the void. The difference between the Nerazim and the Tal’darim in this regard is that the Nerazim are more restrained when channeling the void whereas the Tal’darim give themselves completely to the void. One world where Terrazine is most plentiful is Slayn, the homeworld of the Tal’darim.”~

“How come the Swarm hasn’t gone after them yet?”

~”Amon still has a use for them up until the Khalai and the Nerazim are wiped out. They are not aware of their own impending betrayal.”~

“Great...more shortsighted Protoss. I just hope Lyra doesn’t come across those guys.”

Sweetie accepted her last mission as a mercenary and boarded a small ship for Avernus Station where the pirates were last seen.

Interbellum: The Tal'darim

Leading a mission was an experience that Lyra was still getting used to. She usually followed the orders of one of the other Protoss leaders or Bon Bon. The only time she had been a mission leader was during the operation to kill the fledgling Overmind that the UED controlled. Even then, she still had some assistance from Zeratul and Vorazun. This would be the first time she would be leading a mission alone.

Her mission was to investigate the activities of a renegade Protoss tribe called the Tal’darim. Sources had informed the Protoss that the Tal’darim were operating near one of the Protoss colonies and spreading Terrazine among the colonists, likely for the sake of converting more followers.

Lyra was accompanied by a small fleet of ships to improve their odds of success should the Tal’darim prove to be more dangerous than anticipated.

Upon arrival at the colony, the representative greeted Lyra with the usual ‘En Taro Adun’ greeting before getting down to business.

The colonial leader had received reports of colonists roaming the streets trying to communicate with figures that were not there. The Observers had also reported that there were no hidden figures for the colonists to communicate with.

Speaking with non-existent figures was highly unusual behavior for a Protoss since they were never alone thanks to the Khala. Examination of one of the afflicted colonists revealed that they had recently been exposed to Terrazine.

Since Terrazine was not normally sought by Protoss, they came to the conclusion that there were some Tal’darim Protoss exposing the colonists to the chemical. Suspecting trouble, they contacted Shakuras to request assistance.

The Tal’darim were known to be highly skilled warriors who hone those skills more often than the other tribes. Their culture was also known to be the most deviated from the others due to their inherent brutality. If there was one form of order that the Tal’darim do respect, it was their Chain of Ascension.

With the info from the Protoss Magistrate obtained, Lyra and the group accompanying her began investigating the various structures and homes looking for more information. Some of the citizens were too terrified to speak about them for fear of getting assassinated.

Eventually, their search leads them to a facility that appeared similar to the one on Aiur when she first arrived.

As they prepared themselves to enter the facility to explore, a pair of Protoss jumped down and ambushed the group, killing the two unfortunate Zealots before they even knew what was going on.

Unlike the Khalai, who normally wore gold colored armor and wielded blue psi blades, or the Nerazim, who normally wore cloaks to protect them from the desert environment of Shakuras, these Protoss wore black and red armor with crimson crystals embedded.

Lyra raised her energy shields and charged at the attackers. The attackers responded in kind to strike her down. Lyra vanished in front of them, leaving the two confused for a moment. That was all the time Lyra needed as she appeared behind them and swept the leg of one attacker and caused him to fall back. Lyra had her warp blade pointed upward as the attacker landed on it. She followed up by pulling the blade upward through his head before hurling his fading body at the other attacker who was stunned from the impact. Not missing a beat, she charged past the stunned attacker and decapitated him before he even realized what she was doing.

As the fight was going on, a third figure was watching from above them in the shadows, analyzing the movements of the unusual creature. He couldn’t help but be impressed by her ruthless efficiency. Looking at her allies, it was obvious that they were stunned by her actions as well. He decided that he would observe her for a little longer before he decided whether or not she would be useful for his plans.

The remainder of the group prepared themselves as they entered the facility to engage the rest of the Tal’darim within. It wasn’t long before they encountered their next set of enemies. While the Zealots distracted them, Lyra shadowstepped behind the enemies and cut them down.

The process repeated itself a few times as the group moved through the facility, Some of the Zealots were getting annoyed that Lyra had been stepping in to take out the enemies herself since they were seeking their own honor.

Eventually, their path split in two directions and they decided to split up. Lyra took the less fussy Zealots with her while the rest took the other path. Lyra was determined to not allow the rest of her allies to die on her watch and she was already saddened when she lost two of them to that ambush.

Their search soon led Lyra’s group to the atrium where the Terrazine was stored. Remembering what happened last time, she was careful not to disturb the contents of the Terrazine canisters.

Looking around the area, she saw a number of Tal’darim Zealots had discovered them. They deployed their blades and charged after Lyra and the Zealots that came with her. With a single shadowstep, Lyra reappeared behind the attackers and kicked the lagging member forward and into some of the other enemies. Those who were too slow to get up were immediately cut down by Lyra.

Unfortunately, her allies didn’t fare nearly as well as she did because they were taken down by the numerous Tal’darim warriors who preferred to deal with the easier enemies first.

Enraged by their tactics, Lyra charged past the enemies with her Storm Charge, which destroyed their shields, before cutting through her weakened enemies.

Realizing how dangerous she was, the Tal’darim Zealots tried to attack her at once, only for her to create numerous illusory copies of herself. When the Zealots attacked the fakes, psionic electricity assaulted their shields and shorted them out, leaving Lyra free to ricochet herself from enemy to enemy and cutting them down.

Once the facility was cleared of enemies, Lyra let down her guard...which was a big mistake. A figure appeared behind her and slammed his focuser at the back of her head. Unable to maintain consciousness, Lyra’s vision quickly turned black.

Waking up with a headache and a sense of deja vu, Lyra opened her eyes to take in her surroundings. Once again she was in a stasis cell. This time, however, she was being transported in a Protoss ship with an unusual design. Instead of the colors of gold, brass, and blue around her, she witnessed shades of black and red around her. Remembering the color design of the Tal’darim armor, Lyra realized that she had been captured by the enemy.

If her body wasn’t in stasis, it would be tensing up as she was left to ponder the fate that was in store for her.

One of the Tal’darim had taken notice of Lyra’s conscious state and approached her cell. “About time you woke up,” he said impatiently. “We are almost to Slayn and I still have to discuss something with you.”

The Protoss speaking to her had pale skin that could only be seen from the top of his head. His eyes were as red as his jewelry. The rest of his body was covered in an obsidian-colored armor with crimson jewels. His focusers were the same color as his armor while also carrying the appearance of scissor-like crab claws. He was also wearing a crimson robe that only showed beneath his armor.

“I would like your assistance with a certain...project...of mine,” he continued. “By the way, you are free to speak in there.”

Lyra narrowed her eyes at the Protoss. “If it involves the other tribes or spreading Terrazine then the answer is a flat out no.”

“I don’t think you’re in any position to be deciding what I can and can’t ask of you. Regardless, right now I am taking you back to my homeworld of Slayn. Whether I turn you in to the Highlord or keep you as my servant will depend on your choice.”

“And what part will allow me to return to my friends?”

“That will depend on whether or not you’re strong enough to earn your freedom. Though I do hope that you will accept my proposal, a greater part of me hopes that you won’t so that I can see you suffer at the hands of Ma’lash.”

Lyra rolled her eyes. “Fine, I accept. What do you want me to do? And can I get the name of my benefactor?” she said dryly.

The Protoss expressed a brief moment of disappointment before he spoke, “As you may or may not know, the Tal’darim treat their so called ‘Chain of Ascension’ as some sacred rite of personal advancement. I think of it as a little game that my people play to fool themselves into thinking that they have a chance at becoming Xel’naga. I have enough influence over some key members that I can integrate you into our society as a Zealot to participate in the Chain. It will be up to you to climb the ranks. And since I’m feeling generous at the moment, let me give you some advice; Consume as much Terrazine as you can to enhance your power or you will never get the opportunity to leave. Once you are the same rank as me, a First Ascendant, then I will allow you to return to your friends until the time comes for me to execute my ultimate plan. There is a certain First Ascendant that I want you to eliminate to make my future plans easier for me.”

Lyra raised an eyebrow to let him know that he still hadn’t answered her other question.

He picked up on it quickly and chuckled. “Fine...you may call me Alarak.”

Interbellum: Project Shadowblade

A lone, small Dropship slowly made its way to Avernus Station where a band of pirates were in the middle of setting up shop. The ship’s functions were kept to a minimum to stay under their detection methods. A cloaking device with limited power was installed on the ship so that the lone rider could enter the station undetected.

Sweetie’s mission was to investigate the activities of the pirates and decide whether or not they were a potential threat to Deadman’s Port. The rumors mentioned that the pirates were seeking Jorium and Terrazine which were said to enhance one’s brain chemistry to awaken or increase their psychic powers.There were also reports that the pirates have a number of Ghosts guarding the station and the leader is using the substances to increase the number of Ghosts in his gang.

Sweetie had to go in solo to reduce the chances of detection. Thanks to new Terran innovations, Sweetie was able to land on the station from a safe distance thanks to the new drop pods that allowed rapid deployment of troops. Sweetie was apprehensive about the new tech since she had never tried it before, but she put those fears in the back of her mind and entered the ship’s drop pod.

Thankfully, the new design made it so the landing impact was greatly softened. When her pod landed, Sweetie emerged only slightly dazed.

Recovering quickly, Sweetie activated her personal Cloaking and began exploring. With the defenses underdeveloped, there was little in the form of security in the area. Looking around, she saw very few crates of Jorium, meaning that the pirates were having little success in obtaining Jorium. Her exploration led her to a grinder that was turning the sparse crystals in the area into tiny shards.

Sweetie did notice a few Ghosts guarding the area, but what Sweetie noticed was that they were wearing stealth suits that were different from her own. She had to admit though, her current outfit may be outdated since she had been running around in it for four years.

Noticing a convenient transport nearby, Sweetie hitched a ride on it to the next section by grabbing onto the underside of it. With extreme care, she dropped off the ship and landed safely on the ground.

Continuing her exploration, Sweete walked through what could be interpreted as a gate where the control appeared to be placed in a decent location for keeping intruders out. Fortunately for her, the gate was down. She proceeded through the gateway and continued her investigation. Moving around a lookout, Sweetie comes across some open ground before she hears her HUD send her alerts that a Nuke was launched. She spotted the laser in the area and knew that she needed to run away fast. She bolted in the direction she came from in time before the Nuke landed in the area she was in.

She noticed a pair of the strangely dressed Ghosts talking to each other. One appeared to be berating the other for wasting a Nuke for fun.

Moving through the area, Sweetie snuck past any security and noticed large spherical containers that were nowhere near filled to capacity with some strange purple-colored gas. However, there should be enough in there for her use at least. She was smart enough to not get exposed to the stuff though. She heard about Lyra’s experience with Terrazine.

As she was inspecting the Terrazine tanks, a surveillance drone flew into the area. Sweetie recognized it right away as a Raven. According to intel gathered by her merc allies, Ravens were quickly making the Science Vessels obsolete due to how cheap they are to build. While they don’t have the EMP missiles or radioactive gas, Ravens can deploy autogun turrets, missile drones to intercept missiles or launch mines that chase their targets and annihilate most targets.

Thinking quickly, Sweetie launched a Lockdown at the Raven before an alert went out for her. Unfortunately, she was too late to stop the alert. It wasn’t long before the area was crawling with Ghosts. Sweetie soon found herself cornered by the covert soldiers while the Raven was freed from the Lockdown to make sure she didn’t make any sudden moves.

“You can decloak now, I have you surrounded by my brothahs,” said a deep voice.

Making sure she still has options for her escape, Sweetie deactivated her Cloaking. A lone figure emerged from the other Ghosts and walked up to her.

The figure was wearing the same suit that the others were wearing. Sweetie could make out an insignia on his shoulder that looked like a red triangular skull. The person had dark skin, black facial hair and the black hair on his head was done in dreadlocks. Red light coursed through his suit. A doll was hanging from his neck His eyes were glowing white.

The man continued, “Seems we have ourselves a spy. Strange that I don’t see an insignia on your suit. Are you of the Dominion? Or are you some mercenary who is way over her head?”

Seeing as he had something she wanted and she hoped that he was in a diplomatic mood, Sweetie decided to talk to him. “I can assure you that I am an enemy of the Dominion. As for the ‘over my head’ part, I don’t think you will want to kill me, not when I have some value to you.” That was partly a bluff since she didn’t know anything about the guy.

“Heh...we shall see. Now, are ya gonna come quietly or are we gonna put you down?”

Sweetie raised her arms in surrender. The Ghosts moved in to confiscate her weapon and take her to the leader’s hideout. “I’ll need that back when I’m done here.”

Sweetie found herself tied to a chair with a table in front of her. The leader was sitting in a chair in front of her. The room was decently lit and had almost nothing noteworthy to her.

“Now, since ya didn’t deny bein’ a mercenary, am I to assume that ya are one?” he asked.

“For now, this is actually my last mission before sorta retiring from merc life to rejoin my friends,” Sweetie responded.

“What was your mission here?”

Sweetie didn’t mind giving the details of her mission. She decided that if the guy went along with her proposal, he could make for a decent ally. If not, she would fry him with a Psionic Storm before he could do anything with the info. “Deadman’s Port wanted to assess your threat level. They say you’re some dangerous pirate and they bar you from entry.”

“It’s true, I have taken up piracy for my operations. I’m also goin’ around as a weapons dealer. So tell me, based on what ya seen so far, whaddya think?”

“I think you have something that interests me. Something that suits my personal agenda. If possible, I’d like to strike a deal with you. Of course, how enticing my deal is depends on how you feel about the Dominion.”

The person gave a wide smirk. “I have a vendetta against the Emperor. That is the ultimate goal of my crew. We won’t quit ‘till Mengsk is dead and his Dominion burned to the ground.

“Then we can do business, but let’s keep the Dominion burning to a minimum. Humanity still needs someone to lead them. First, some introductions. I am Sweetie Drops, aka Thestral, second in command to the rebel organization Raynor’s Raiders.”

The person looked confused for a moment. “Why would someone like you be workin’ as a merc? Is Raynor really that short on funds?”

Sweetie sighed, “I’m afraid so. With Mengsk weaponizing the media against him, it’s been difficult getting resources for his operations.”

The man nodded. “I see...perhaps if you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. I am called Gabriel Tosh. Most of my men are called Spectres, next generation Ghosts. The rumors say that we were a subversive offshoot of the Ghost Program called Project Shadowblade, we used Jorium and the newly discovered Terrazine to enhance our powers. The rumors are true.”

“I think at this point I can venture a guess as to what you want. You want me to get Raynor’s Raiders to help gather Jorium and Terrazine to help you train more of these Spectres.”

“You be right about that. If your rebel group is as good as the rumors say, maybe you can help break mah brothahs and sistahs outta New Folsom Prison. Now, whaddya want in return?”

Sweetie gave a wide smile. They finally got to the part she was waiting for. “I want to enhance my psychic powers to their full potential. For that, I need the Terrazine. You should have just enough for me. Once that is done, all you have to do is contact Raynor when you are ready to begin mining for the resources and I’ll do the rest. That is my price for the assistance in harvesting the resources. The price for the prison break is you and your Spectres joining Raynor’s Raiders.”

Tosh’s eyes went wide from the implications of what Sweetie said. “Ya do realize that you are goin’ behind Raynor’s back on this.” His eyes narrowed. “How do I know that I can trust you to carry out your part of the bargain?”

Sweetie’s smile didn’t falter. “Don’t worry about that. I will talk to Raynor about my plans. As for the trust...If this turns out to be a prime opportunity for you to finally get to Mengsk, can you really afford to throw it away?

“Oh, I have a question by the way. I know that Jorium can awaken psychic powers and Terrazine enhances them, but what about the side effects of the Terrazine? Doesn’t that stuff make you go crazy?”

Tosh pondered Sweetie’s words and he knew that she was right, he couldn’t throw away such an opportunity because of trust issues. Raynor stood the best chance of anyone of getting to Mengsk since he knew the man the most. As for her question…

“The second property of Jorium is that it nullifies the hallucinogenic properties of Terrazine. That’s why we be needin’ plenty of the stuff. Ya be needin’ regular doses of both to maintain the effects.”

“One large dose should be fine. I suspect the gas affects Ponies differently. My friend Lyra can attest to it since she only had one large dose of it and she’s still a badass even after a whole year when I was around her.”

“...Fine. I be helpin’ ya out. Just remember, do not cross me or I’ll hit you in a way ya never see comin’,” Tosh threatened.

Shortly after Tosh exposed Sweetie to the Jorium and Terrazine supply that he had, Sweetie felt her mind expanding to new levels. Wanting to try out her new powers, Sweetie levitated a Jorium crystal in her telekinesis and hurled it at a nearby cliff. The crystal was buried into the face of the cliff.

Some of the Spectres showed her some new techniques that she could use in the future. The Psionic Lash could be used to tear apart large equipment and enemies. Mindblast could be used to destroy enemy minds. Sweetie was impressed with the new abilities.

Tosh knew that he was taking a huge risk by trusting Sweetie, but he also had a hunch that she would be needing him for the foreseeable future.

Soon, Sweetie’s weapon was returned to her and she boarded her ship and headed back to Deadman’s Port. She delivered her report to Mira and received her final paycheck as well as a device that would allow her to call in mercenary companies as a bonus. The device was designed to only allow her access to mercenary contracts for one year. Adding her salary to the money she got when she sold her story of her experiences on Tarsonis, which the book was quickly banned by the Dominion. She earned a total of five million credits.

With that, Sweetie bid her farewell to Mira and began searching for the trail that would take her back to her old friend.

Interlude: Reunions

Sweetie had come out of her mercenary contract as a millionaire in credits. Over the three years that she spent with Mira Han, or Mira Horner whenever she wanted an alias, she had amassed a total of five million credits that she intended to use to improve Raynor’s Raiders. Mira, in her generosity, also paid for a year long subscription to summon various mercenary groups to her aid when necessary.

The War Pigs were contracted to send up to three squads per mission. They were a group of well equipped Marines in superior armor to the standard CMC armor worn by most soldiers.

Devil Dogs were squadrons of Firebats that had upgraded their armor over the past four years. Their armor was much thicker than the old variation. The standard Firebats were also bulkier than they were four years ago. Their firepower had improved some as an upside.

Hammer Securities were an improved version of a new type of soldier that had taken to the field in recent years. The Marauders were equipped with grenade launchers and what appeared to be repurposed versions of Firebat suits. The merc version looked a lot different in design to the standard.

Spartan Company utilized customized Goliaths which, as the news has informed her, were slowly becoming obsolete due to the recent introduction of the convertible fighter craft known as Vikings.

Siege Breakers were a former Confederate group that went mercenary when their government collapsed. They pilot customized Siege Tanks that were quite powerful. There was also a newer version of the Siege Tanks that had been mass produced. The Arclite model was used during the Great War and the Brood War and the new Crucio model offered superior protection and firepower along with superior versatility compared to the old model.

Hel’s Angels were mercenary pilots that flew in customized versions of the new Viking fighters. Supposedly, they had effectively become the preferred vehicle to use over Wraiths, Goliaths and Valkyries. Vikings can freely transform between fighter craft and combat walker, driving the way for the three previously mentioned vehicles into obsolescence.

Dusk Wings were an all female mercenary group that piloted new flight vehicles called Banshees. The ships were known for their very loud engines that sound like a constantly screaming voice, hence the name. Banshees were equipped to launch ATS rockets over small areas but were helpless to enemies in the air. They also came equipped with sophisticated stealth technology that, when accompanied by vikings, drove the point home that Wraiths were a thing of the past.

Finally, the pirate Battlecruiser, Jackson’s Revenge, had joined the list of available mercenaries that she could call upon when in need. Battlecruisers have gone through many improvements over the years. Unlike after the Brood War, the variants of which could fire single bursts of laser blasts every couple of seconds, the more recent variations were equipped with numerous turrets and missile pods for rapid fire capabilities.

As eager as Sweetie was to see the new weapons tested on the battlefield as well as the new Spectre abilities that she had just learned from Tosh and his goons, there was one person...or Pony that she wanted to see first since they had been apart for three and a half years.

Sweetie began transmitting on the Raiders’ private frequency trying to contact the Hyperion. “Hyperion, this is Sweetie Drops. Come in, over.” After a few minutes of repeating the transmission, she finally got a response.

<”This is Matt Horner, welcome back Sweetie Drops. Are you requesting pick up?”>

Sweetie smiled at the sound of the familiar voice. “Hey Matthew, I’m sending my coordinates to you. Come get me when you can.”

Matt was not fond of being called by his full first name and Sweetie knew it. She called him that just to tease him a little and remind him of his legally binding marriage to Mira as a result of a poker game. <“Please don’t call me that. I’ve been avoiding her calls for months,”> he said.

“At least go on a date with her; get to know her before you start judging her.”

Matt groaned before the transmission was cut.

Shortly after the transmission, a large and familiar Battlecruiser appeared on her sensors. The imposing ship opened its bay doors to allow Sweetie inside.

Once inside, Sweetie checked out the changes to the ship. First, she checked out the armory. The new person in charge was a man of average height, brown hair and eyes with a big brown moustache. He was wearing a brown and orange maintenance suit and a dark brown shirt underneath. Most noticeable of all was the mechanical grappling claw replacing half of his left arm.

The man took notice of the equine and greeted her, “Now we got Horses runnin’ around here? Now I’ve seen everything.” Sweetie gave him a harsh glare from the statement. One of the engineering staff came to the man and whispered something in his ear. Upon hearing that, his eyes became wide open. “Whoa, sorry, my bad. I meant Ponies.” Sweetie relaxed her glare. “Anyway, Jimmy told me his second in command was a Pony, had no idea what he meant 'till now. That really took me by surprise.”

Sweetie chuckled. “It’s fine, I get it. I know you’ve never seen my kind anywhere so I understand how shocking it is to see a new species on the ship. Anyway, name’s Sweetie Drops. I went by the merc name ‘Thestral’ until recently.”

The man’s eyes went wider than before. “I heard of you! You’re that merc that's been makin’ a big name for herself. Even got a book written ‘bout your experiences when Tarsonis bit it. You even used your merc name on the cover.”

“Yeah, that’s me. Mira wanted me to use the name because apparently ‘Sweetie Drops’ isn’t a name people take seriously.”

“No offense, ranger, but your name does sound like something a little girl would come up with.” Sweetie rolled her eyes.

Suddenly, a thought hit her, “Ranger?” She shook her head and put the thought away.

“I’m Rory Swann by the way. I’m kinda seen as a big brother type around here.”

Lyra’s escape ship had successfully exited the territory held by the Tal’darim and entered Dominion space. Though she would prefer to be away from the Dominion as well and be with Tassadar, Artanis, Fenix and Zeratul, she missed Bon Bon most of all.

She checked out the various Dominion fringe worlds for signs of the Hyperion and eventually picked it up on her sensors. Recalling the frequency that Bon Bon told her for the Hyperion, she used the channel to hail them.

An image of Matt Horner shows up on her screen. <”Oh, it's you Lyra. Sweetie just came aboard a few minutes ago. She is still in the Armory talking to our new chief engineer,”> Matt said.

“Okay, coming aboard,” Lyra said. While she tried to maintain a sense of decorum toward the ship’s captain, she couldn’t help but feel an extreme sense of elation about seeing Bon Bon again. She quickly landed her ship in the hangar slash armory and exited the ship before assuming her shadowy form to quickly close the gap between herself and Bon Bon. Before Sweetie could put up her guard from the inevitable tackle she was about to receive, she found herself on the ground in a bone crushing hug from an overexcited unicorn.

“Bonnie! IneverthoughtIwouldeverseeyouagainafterwhatI’vebeenthrough,” Lyra said in one breath.

“Need...air...Lyres,” Sweetie responded. Lyra let go of Sweetie so she could gasp for precious life-giving air. “Geez Lyra, I do have bones you know. Wow, you’ve gotten strong.”

Lyra stroked the back of her mane and giggled nervously. “Oops, sorry.”

Swann waited a moment before speaking, “So, who’s this happy-go-lucky Pony?”

Sweetie turned her attention to the engineer. “Her name is Lyra Heartstrings, she’s my marefriend or girlfriend in your terms.”

“Ah, no wonder she went after you like that then.” Swann introduced himself to Lyra who properly introduced herself. The three of them discussed the latest pieces of Terran military hardware before leaving the armory and headed for the bridge.

Once there, they found Matt talking to a lanky looking person with brown hair that pointed straight upward. They were discussing the matter of getting the lab ready for future studies.

When the conversation ended, Matt addressed the Ponies, “Seems you two were able to find each other just fine. And before you ask, the person I talked to was our science advisor, Egon Stetmann. He’s eccentric, but he does have his uses.

“If you’re looking for Jim, he went back to Mar Sara. He hasn’t been doing well, still misses Kerrigan. He seems to be drinking more lately, probably trying to forget her. Why don’t you two head over to Joey Ray’s Bar on Mar Sara, maybe seeing you two might help him.”

“Before we do that, I’d like to know what happened to our inventory. Last I checked, which was over three years ago, we had a decent arsenal. Now there’s a lot of empty space in our inventory,” Sweetie wondered.

“That’s what happens when jobs are scarce while there’s a bunch of propaganda being broadcast against you. We had to sell most of our inventory just to pay the maintenance costs for the Hyperion. Jim’s depression has also had a negative effect on the crew.”

“Any sign of Kerrigan? We haven’t heard anything about her lately.”

“No, not even a small sign. She’s been a little too quiet if you ask me.”

As Sweetie and Matt contemplated Kerrigan’s activities, Lyra spoke up, “I need to contact my friends on Shakuras to let them know I’m alright. My time away from them may have given them the impression that I was killed in battle.” With that, Lyra returned to her ship to transmit to her friends.

Sweetie was confused and curious about what Lyra did for three years, a matter she would soon ask her marefriend. After saying goodbye to Matt, Sweetie followed Lyra to the hangar.

Since Protoss ships would raise eyebrows in Terran space, Sweetie and Lyra agreed to take Sweetie’s ship to Mar Sara. Once Lyra finished explaining herself to Tassadar, who had recently become Hierarch of the Daelaam, the Ponies boarded Sweetie’s ship and departed for Mar Sara to see if they can get Raynor out of his depression.

Liberty: Spark of Rebellion

Sweetie and Lyra entered the Mar Sara system, one feeling a small sense of nostalgia since this world was where her adventure truly began, the other curious about how the world looked especially knowing that she watched Tassadar’s expeditionary fleet incinerate the landscape from orbit.

Sweetie’s ship was registered as a mercenary ship with legitimate passcodes to allow them to land at the local Starport. Upon landing, however, the two noticed the Starport was under guard by Dominion Troops instead of the local colonial militia.

Since the two of them were wanted criminals for rebellious actions against the regime, Sweetie activated her Cloaking while Lyra activated her Shadow Walking ability.

Joey Ray’s Bar was on the outskirts of the city so the two of them had to escape the city and avoid detection by the Dominion guards, taking care to avoid any Missile Turrets in the city. They also avoided killing any guards since that might tip off their arrival to the Dominion in the city and they didn’t want to risk the Dominion having an Orbital Command Center which was a Command Center with the capabilities of a Comsat Station.

Thankfully, since Mar Sara was a wasteland type world with little to offer in terms of resources except the usual Minerals and Vespene, security was actually quite low, making their escape from the city much easier.

During their trek through the city, Sweetie and Lyra noticed the state of the civilians. They noticed the morale of the citizens were poor and the Dominion looked like they were abusing their authority. As much as they would have liked to help, Taking out troops now would only lead to unnecessary trouble.

Once outside the city, the Ponies looked around for a bar where they would find their friend, Jim Raynor. They didn’t have to look too hard to find a structure that had a lit sign that looked bigger than the building itself that said ‘Joey Ray’s’ with an arrow pointing to the door.

The two entered the bar to find Raynor paying more attention to the news broadcast which seemed to be about some commemoration of the end of the Brood War four years ago. Mengsk was questioned about his use of resources in hunting down has-been rebels like Jim Raynor. Mengsk replied that Raynor was still a dangerous threat to the regime and would be brought to justice very soon.

“It ain’t over till it’s over, you son of a bitch,” Raynor replied to the television, pointing his gun at the screen and shooting it.

Sweetie gave a dramatic eye roll at Raynor’s pointless action. “Seriously, what is with you and shooting screens?” she asked.

Raynor turned around to address the voice to find himself in good company. “Sweetie!” he said cheerfully. He quickly noticed the other Pony in the room, “I see you brought Lyra too. How have you been?”

The Ponies smiled, glad to see Raynor feeling better, although they could both sense the sadness that Raynor had been trying to hide.

The three exchanged stories of their activities over the three years that they had been away. Raynor and Sweetie were surprised when they learned that Lyra was a prisoner of a brutal Protoss faction. Sweetie also considered Lyra’s testimony and noted everything she said about the Tal’darim, especially the part about them being blind worshippers of Amon, the name of which was implied to her even if Lyra never uttered his name since they weren't sure if it was time to reveal his identity to Raynor yet. Just from Lyra’s testimony alone told Sweetie and Raynor that the Tal’darim are not a group that can be negotiated with.

On Sweetie’s end, Raynor and Lyra were pleasantly surprised that Sweetie had amassed a significant number of Credits, Lyra’s surprise came when it was explained to her what Credits were. The mercenary contracts that Sweetie received were also happily received by Raynor.

With that, Raynor, who saw Sweetie’s return as the final bit of preparation he was waiting for, decided to resume their revolution and make a difference that will actually grab Mengsk’s attention.

Raynor activated the command console next to him to address the holographic image of his personal adjutant and asked it if his troops were ready.

“Your forces are prepared and awaiting your orders, Commander. Uploading tactical data now.” The console displayed numerous images of a familiar location, one that had gone through significant changes over the past few years. “Backwater Station is the center of Dominion logistics on Mar Sara. Destroying Dominion authority here will cripple Emperor Mengsk’s operations throughout the planet.” A building was displayed and indicated as the logistics headquarters of the Dominion on Mar Sara.

Since Mar Sara held little importance to the Dominion, Sweetie wasn’t expecting any heavy resistance. For everything she and Lyra went through, she was not expecting the mission to be a challenge,especially since it was said that the Dominion troops were undermanned in terms of military strength.

“The people of Backwater Station are known to be anti-Dominion,” the adjutant continued. “But they lack weapons and organization.”

Inciting the locals into a riot can be a double-edged sword, while angry citizens can cause a lot of damage, the Dominion troops may panic and start killing civilians. If or when that happens, Sweetie knew that they would need to be extra careful to minimize casualties.

Feeling confident in his friends’ abilities, Raynor opted to infiltrate Backwater Station with just him, Sweetie and Lyra. The trio dropped into the area from Raynor’s personal Dropship.

“Alright ladies, let’s show the locals that they don’t need to fear the Dominion,” Raynor said.

The trio walked past an abandoned checkpoint where one of the vehicles hit the gate while the vehicles behind the one were abandoned.

Further ahead was a lone civilian who looked like she had given up hope given the inflection in her voice. She warned the three of them to not go up the road.

Near some broken mining equipment were some Dominion troops gathered in one place. Sweetie decided to be the first one to show off by unleashing a psionic explosion that caused the heads of the group to explode. Raynor was once again reminded why Sweetie was not to be trifled with.

Just ahead was a device that displayed an image of Mengsk spreading his messages of oppression. Raynor blasted the device in a hail of bullets. “Are you going to do this every time you see Mengsk’s face on some digital media?” Sweetie asked.

“We might be able to encourage the citizens to riot if we go around breakin' Dominion property,” Raynor replied.

Moving into the town, the trio noticed the buildings and vehicles were all abandoned. A pair of Dominion Marines were in the street looking for civilians. Lyra, with her psionic and void powers greatly enhanced from her time on Slayn, decided to experiment with something. Channeling her void powers, Lyra bound the Marines in a Maelstrom. Raynor was confused for a moment before Sweetie nudged him and knocked him out of his confusion long enough for him to take out the Marines.

Seeing the ability at work, Sweetie became curious about it, “Wasn’t that ability usually used by Dark Archons?”

“I learned a few new tricks while I was Alarak's prisoner. Among them was the ability to use the powers that Dark Archons use.”

“I see…” With a shrug, Sweetie and the group moved onward past some guy who was grieving over his neighbors and family being abducted by the Dominion.

Coming upon the plaza, the group discovers a large Dominion force gathering in the area. Not taking chances, Raynor let the Ponies handle the group. Sweetie sniped a few targets which caused them to run around in confusion. When they got the idiotic idea to bunch up and look for a sniper, Lyra deployed her warp blade and bane blade and shredded the Marines apart in one sweep.

Raynor continued shooting up Mengsk’s holoboard displays around the plaza while Sweetie used a Mindblast to deal with a group of Marines that stayed out of the action in the main area.

The majority of the civilians were in the next area being moved into a transport. The Dominion mentioned a dig site. One of the civilians attempted to flee, seeing this one of the Dominion Marines pointed his rifle at the civilian...before his head exploded from a sniper round. Realizing that his friend was just sniped, he looked around for the sniper before he found his vision to be vertically shifting, one eye looking up and the other looking down. He didn’t even realize he had been vertically sliced in two before his consciousness faded.

The transport was equipped with an autogun turret which Lyra slashed off and passed it to Sweetie who jammed it into the front of the vehicle. Raynor got the rest of the civilians out of the vehicle before it blew up.

The civilians expressed their gratitude toward Raynor and the Ponies and told them that more were being held prisoner further ahead. Raynor shot up the last two holoboards in the area.

With Raynor, Sweetie and Lyra causing a huge mess for the Dominion, the citizens were emboldened to take up whatever they could get their hands on and start attacking the Dominion facility.

The Dominion set all of the few guards they had to try to quell the rebellion only to be frozen in place by a Maelstrom, leaving them easy prey as the civilians burnt them alive with molotov cocktails.

A pair of the new Viking fighters flew in as a last ditch effort to defend the headquarters. Sweetie locked them down and both Ponies took one out. Lyra unleashed a powerful psionic blast while Sweetie tried out her new Psionic Lash where she unleashed a concentrated burst of psionic energy which had devastating results.

With all security taken out, Raynor planted charges all over the headquarters and detonated them, tearing apart the building and sending a message to Mengsk: Raynor and the Ponies are back.

Liberty: Fragment of Hope

The open revolt against the Dominion and the destruction of their headquarters had shaken the Dominion garrison on the planet. The troops had withdrawn from the majority of civilized Mar Sara, leaving the citizens to breathe a sigh of relief as they began thanking Raynor’s Raiders for returning their freedom.

Reports have surfaced that the Dominion had, for the most part, withdrawn from Mar Sara except for an archaeological dig site. Sweetie began to suspect that there was something the Dominion wanted to dig up that they would risk control of the colony for it.

Sweetie, Lyra and Raynor returned to the bar to find that the owner had replaced the television that Raynor shot, along with a sign that said ‘Don’t shoot the screen’. Sweetie couldn’t help but laugh at Raynor’s expense.

The three sat at the bar to enjoy a drink. Thanks to their increased mental fortitude, Sweetie and Lyra had an increased alcohol tolerance.

After one glass each, the door to the bar opened. A large, imposing figure in a blue CMC suit with the number 435 on both shoulders and a pin-up on the left shoulder. The man was unarmed but Sweetie knew he could still do damage with the suit’s mechanics alone so she kept her guard up.

The figure walked up to Raynor, who had begun reaching for his gun, and spoke, “Y’know, for the most wanted people in the sector - you ain’t that hard to find. I had to see it for myself.” The visor opened to reveal a man with scars over his right eye and was smoking a cigar, which made Sweetie wonder if the helmet had decent ventilation. “Little Jimmy Raynor...the people’s hero.”

Raynor recognized the voice and relaxed. His hand went back to his drink. “Heh...Tychus Findlay…” He took another drink from his glass. “Nice suit.”

Sweetie had heard Raynor mention Tychus a few times in the past. She heard that he and Raynor had committed a number of crimes together in the past. Tychus sacrificed his freedom so that Raynor could go straight. The question was: how did Tychus get out of prison?

Tychus looked at Sweetie, “Move over, me and Jimmy need to talk business.”

Sweetie deadpanned, “I’m his second in command. Whatever you need to tell him you can tell me as well.”

Tychus shrugged, “Suit yerself.”

“So, I heard they put you on ice. Life sentence. What, did they give you time off for good behavior?” Raynor inquired.

“That’s right, old buddy. I’m a model citizen now.” Tychus joked. Sweetie rolled her eyes.

“Hate to break up this happy little reunion, but can we get to the business side of this conversation?” Sweetie asked.

“Okay, basically the Dominion are out here because they’re digging up alien artifacts. Your boy Mengsk has gone crazy for ‘em. But I got a contact that’ll pay top dollar for every artifact we...liberate from the Dominion.”

“I guess I can hardly pass that up, now can I, Tychus?” Raynor said.

“So, Sixty-fourty?” Tychus offered.

“Seventy-five-twenty-five, our way.” Raynor counter-offered. “The ladies are part of this deal as well.”

Tychus agreed to the deal and the four of them toasted to the new partnership.

The news came on to give their late-breaking news. Apparently, UNN had already gotten word of Raynor’s resurgence on Mar Sara. The anchorman, Donny Vermillion, was clearly speaking against Raynor’s Raiders while his reporter, Kate Lockwell was stating the facts based on what she found out.

Raynor asked Tychus about how he got out of his prison when he wasn’t supposed to be released at all. Tychus made up some story about busting out and killing a dozen guards with his bare hands. No one bought it. The matter was dropped quietly.

With the deal made, the group discussed their next operation. Naturally, they decided to investigate the dig site that had the most Dominion resistance on Mar Sara. An image of the dig site appeared from the command console.

“So, you’re saying there’s an alien artifact being dug up from that shaft?” Sweetie asked, referring to the huge gaping hole in the ground near a Dominion outpost.

“Dominion engineers’ve been digging out here for months. See that crane?” Tychus pointed to the crane hanging over the shaft. “They’re getting ready to move the artifact they found off world.”

“Alright. Time to give the Dominion a wake-up call. Let’s smash that base and haul that baby out of there.” Raynor said.

Feelings old and new filled Sweetie as she was once again leading Terran troops after four years of leading Protoss and mercenary work. It stands to reason that the buildings would be redesigned. This time the Command Centers do not have a slot for addons while the Barracks does. Supply Depots were smaller than their bulky predecessors and they could descend underground so troops can walk on them or elevate to temporarily impede enemy ground troops.

According to the latest talk about Terran innovations, most production and training facilities such as the Barracks, can be equipped with a Tech Lab which provides the necessary technology to allow the training or construction of a greater variety of troops or vehicles. This has eliminated the need for, frankly, unnecessary buildings such as Academies.

With the addition of Medics, a combination of them with Marines can deal with most situations.

While the base was being set up, with multiple Barracks being built to train up a large number of Marines and Medics, Lyra went ahead to scout for anything useful. She found some crates that held some Minerals and Vespene Gas canisters for Sweetie to use.

Lyra spotted a Dominion attack group heading for their base. She quickly bound them in a Maelstrom then electrocuted them with a Psionic Storm.

She spotted a group of Dominion guarding a few more crates of resources. She quickly dispatched them with a Storm Charge. Since Lyra didn’t have a way to transport the resources back to base herself, she returned to base and reported the resources for the SCVs to collect.

Raynor’s adjutant picked up on a rebel base that was under attack by the Dominion. While Tychus was glad to get some of the pressure off their backs, everyone else wanted to offer their assistance.

Sweetie led a large group of Marines and Medics toward the rebel base to find a number of Dominion Marines attacking them. Sweetie took out a good number of them with a Mindblast while her accompanying Marines dealt with the rest.

The rebels were quite relieved and grateful for the save. They agreed to join Raynor’s attack against the Dominion outpost. The rebels gathered up the resource crates in their small base and handed them off to the SCVs to be used for training more troops.

Once a large force was gathered, more than enough to steamroll through the Dominion, Sweetie and Lyra moved forward against the Dominion.

Raynor’s adjutant alerted them to a group of Helions approaching them. They were very fast four-wheeled vehicles with flamethrower turrets on top of them.

Sweetie locked down the Helions while the Marines blasted them.

Up ahead was a Bunker filled with Marines. Just like old times, Lyra snuck into the building and quietly eliminated the residents. Once again, she comes out of the Bunker with a bloodied shield.

Tychus, who had been watching the battles until now, was quite impressed with Lyra’s and Sweetie’s skills. “Jimmy, with your boys, my skills and those girls, we are gonna go a long way together.”

The group soon came into the enemy base and tore through the defenses before proceeding to quickly destroy all Dominion holdings.

With the dig site security neutralized, Raynor’s adjutant accessed the crane over the shaft and pulled up a mysterious black stone of strange design and a blue glow.

Sweetie had no idea what she was looking at but for some reason, she could sense the Overmind stirring from within her mind. She had no idea what it meant but decided to hold off on asking it for the time being.

Liberty: Deja Vu

The mysterious artifact was placed on a transport vehicle and moved away from the dig site. Any remaining Dominion forces were forced to leave Mar Sara since everything of interest on the planet had fallen into the enemy’s hands and they didn’t have enough manpower to try and retrieve it.

While the artifact was being transported, Raynor contacted the Hyperion to come get them. Matt replied that they would be at his location within a few hours.

Tychus’ mysterious buyers had transferred forty-five thousand Credits into Raynor’s account for safely acquiring the artifact.

In the meantime, Raynor, Tychus, Sweetie and Lyra decided to enjoy a little more time at the bar before they went back to space.

Tychus and Raynor discussed a few minor things, such as asking him what it was like to fight the Zerg. Raynor simply replied about the horror of facing down thousands of them. Tychus also joked about how Raynor turned out to be an impressive fighter. There was also a question of whether or not Raynor’s criminal reputation played a role when he was hired as a Marshal four years ago.

Tychus noticed a photo about some Zerg hunting contest. To Lyra’s surprise, a planetary bombardment wasn’t enough to scour the planet of Zerg since there were still plenty of burrowed Zerg dens. Lyra made a note to tell Tassadar that the bombardment method was not very effective against the Zerg since they can burrow deep enough to avoid the blasts.

Once again, UNN’s ability to gather data for their news broadcasts proved timely as they mentioned the operation to attack the archaeological dig site and seized a potentially dangerous alien artifact. Mengsk held a press conference to inform the public about the potential dangers of some ‘supposedly innocuous’ relics. Sweetie had to wonder if Mengsk knew something about the artifact. Donny once again was making assumptions in favor of Mengsk while Kate was interrupted by Donny as she was telling the fact that overzealous Dominion forces were the main cause of civilian casualties. Sweetie could only pity the reporter since she had to work with that sycophant.

Raynor’s curiosity had driven him to ask the question that was on everyone’s minds, “So who’s your mysterious buyer, Tychus? Who’re we supposed to hand over this artifact to?”

“A bunch of eggheads I ran into called the Moebius Foundation,” Tychus replied.

“Moebius? They’re a legitimate research group. Why the hell are they talkin’ to you?”

“Soon as yer boy Mengsk made it illegal to trade in alien goods, they got desperate. And you know me, Jimmy - I am a great patron of the sciences.” Raynor and the Ponies rolled their eyes.

The rest of the time in the bar was spent talking about the past. Lyra and Sweetie learned a lot about the past of the two men. They learned about all the heists they pulled together, all the trouble they got into and their time in the Confederate army.

While Sweetie and Lyra told stories about their past, Tychus was not hiding his boredom at all. He really didn’t care about how Lyra was a dropout from her world’s prestigious school of magic. What did interest him a little were Sweetie’s agency stories since they were more violent than Lyra’s stories. He was more interested in their stories from after they arrived in the Koprulu sector however. Especially the times when Sweetie caused a lot of havoc as a Ghost and the fancy moves Lyra pulled off as a Templar.

About an hour until the expected time of arrival of the Hyperion, Raynor decided it was about time to meet up with the other Raiders at the evacuation zone. Everyone erred on the side of caution as they may end up fighting more Dominion looking to take back the artifact they wanted.

However, what caught them off guard was what also gave Sweetie a sense of deja vu. A large number of Zerg began landing near the abandoned dig site and establishing their positions. Sweetie and Raynor quickly came to the realization of why this was happening now, based on where they landed: the Zerg were after the artifact.

Whatever the artifact was, Sweetie noticed that the Overmind was acting restless and that Kerrigan may be after it.

Upon receiving a glare from Raynor and Sweetie, Tychus got defensive, “I swear, I didn’t know nothin’ ‘bout no Zerg.”

Sweetie sighed, “Unlike you guys, I can remember a battle like this four years ago. This is just like what happened back then, when we were desperate enough to join Mengsk’s rebel organization. So, expect plenty of Zerglings, Hydralisks and Mutalisks.”

With that warning, everyone fled the bar and headed straight for the evacuation zone to prepare for a reenactment.

Once at the base, Sweetie had numerous Bunkers built to reinforce the only bridges into the base. Numerous Missile Turrets were also built for the inevitable air attacks.

Thanks to the Reactor addon for training and manufacturing buildings, training rate for Marines was effectively doubled at the cost of being unable to train Medics since they needed a Tech Lab to create the necessary equipment.

It wasn’t long before the Zerg came running to them, tearing apart any buildings they saw along the way. When a large group of Zerglings attacked from both bridges, Sweetie weakened the enemies on one side with a Psionic Storm while a bottleneck was created on the other bridge while Lyra bound a clump of Zerglings in a Maelstrom. Marines finished off the initial wave.

Shortly after, the Raiders heard a distress signal, <”To anyone hearing this message, we’re pinned down near Backwater Station! Please assist!”>

Since Lyra held the bridge near the reported position, she headed toward the distress signal to find a number of Zerglings and Hydralisks poised to attack the soldiers. Lyra quickly cut down the Zerg with little effort.

The soldiers were grateful for Lyra’s aid and followed her back to base.

Just as Sweetie predicted, Mutalisks were on a direct course for the base. The extra Missile Turrets proved to be exceptionally effective against the flying menace.

The Zerg attacks intensified, soon, a new breed of Zerg began attacking the base. This one had a heavily armored and spiked carapace. It walked on six legs and had scythelike claws that drew attention away from its real attack where it sprays acid from its mouth. The Overmind, who remained connected to the proverbial Zerg gene bank, informed Sweetie that the new breed was a more recent acquisition called the Roach.

Another distress signal was activated in an area between their base and the main hive cluster nearby, <”Mayday! Mayday! We’re trapped by the Zerg! They’re burrowed all around us! If you can reach us, please help!”>

Sweetie took this distress call and headed toward their position. Sweetie started her attack by unleashing a Psionic Storm over a number of holes in the ground. The Zerg emerged to find who attacked them but were helpless against the invisible sniper.

The troops watched as the Zerg were gunned down. A moment later, Sweetie deactivated her cloaking to address the troops. “Hey, I know you. You’re the mercenary, Thestral. Didn’t think we’d be saved by someone so impressive.”

“How did you know what that merc looked like?” Sweetie asked, not wanting to give them a confirmation yet.

“I look things up during my downtime. Your face was recently added to the Mira’s Marauders legendary mercenaries list on her website.”

Sweetie rolled her eyes and silently cursed Mira for giving her the unnecessary popularity. As she reactivated her cloaking, she directed the troops to the base across the bridge.

A large number of Marines and Medics had been trained by the time Sweetie came back with her group. Thinking to weaken the Zerg offensive, Sweetie and Lyra advanced on the hive clusters with the group while leaving a sufficient defense.

The army engaged the nearest hive cluster and showered it with overwhelming firepower. Lyra bound some Zerg in a Maelstrom while Sweetie used her Mindblast to take out Zerg that were foolish enough to group together.

A third distress beacon was activated near their position so Sweetie ordered part of her army to rescue the holdouts. It wasn’t long before their numbers were added to their army as they laid waste to the hive cluster.

Sweetie also took in the sight of the new Zerg buildings that she saw. There were no more Sunken or Spore Colonies, there were, as the Overmind told her, Spine Crawlers and Spore Crawlers. They work similar to their predecessors except they don’t produce Creep but they are able to uproot themselves to plant themselves elsewhere on the Creep. Creep was now produced by organic growths called Creep Tumors. There were a number of changes that the Overmind would have to explain in the future.

Another thing that Sweetie noticed were the Broodlings that emerged from the remains of the larger Zerg buildings. Apparently as a sort of defense mechanism.

The army advanced north to the next hive cluster which had more security and more Spine Crawlers. A pair of Psionic Storms cut into their numbers while the Marines gunned down the Spine Crawlers. Lyra cut one Spine Crawler Tentacle and impaled it into the nearest Zerg building.

In a last and desperate defense, a number of Zerg came to the defense of the hive cluster from the remaining one in the area. These were about the size of Zerglings except they had swollen green sacs all over their bodies.

Sweetie had a very bad feeling about them and ordered the Marines to not allow them to get near them. Bullets punctured the sacs and caused the creatures to violently explode in a wave of green substance that burned everything around it. The Overmind called them Banelings, the new replacements for Infested Terrans.

With two hive clusters wiped out and Sweetie having enough surprises for one day, she, Lyra and the rest of the troops returned to base to endure the remainder of the assault.

The defense held long enough for the Hyperion to arrive and bombard the remaining Zerg in the area. <”Cavalry’s arrived! Anyone still alive down there?”>

“Good to see ya, Matt! Welcome to the party,” Raynor said.

The Hyperion landed and opened its doors to let the Raiders inside. The truck carrying the artifact was quickly driven aboard the ship. Lyra, Sweetie, Raynor and Tychus ran to the bridge where Matt was waiting. “Damn Jimmy, You’ve been holdin’ out on me,” Tychus said.

The Hyperion lifted off and moved to escape Mar Sara. A swarm of Mutalisks were determined to prevent the Battlecruiser from escaping.

Matt had the turrets firing on the Mutalisks in front of the ship as the crew prepared for a warp jump. Once the ship jumped and emerged in a relatively safe area, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Raynor was the first to recover, “What the hell happened? We ain’t seen the Zerg in years - why attack Mar Sara now?”

Matt informed everyone that Kerrigan had once again become active in the Koprulu sector.

“We always knew she’d be back. But what’s she after?” Matt asked.

Raynor knew what Kerrigan was after this time. “She’s come to finish the job.”

Liberty: Escort Duty

Sweetie, Lyra and Raynor took in the news as best as they could. Kerrigan chose this time to become active again. The time for war had come again to the Koprulu sector.

With the pressure from the Zerg gone momentarily, Sweetie decided to ask the Overmind her question, “I can tell that the artifact is affecting you. Is there something special about it?”

The Overmind regained its composure enough to speak, ~”The artifact is but a piece of a powerful Xel’naga relic that holds untold power within. Theoretically, the full relic could siphon essence, matter, information and consciousness and convert it into energy. It can also siphon the essence bound to Kerrigan, effectively reversing her infestation.”~

“So, the time is near when we need to save her so I can guide her on the path you intended.”

~”Beware when using it, you must protect yourself from the effects of the relic should the Terrans end up using it. My knowledge and existence will be lost if I am exposed to the relic’s power.”~

Sweetie put her thoughts aside when Lyra and Raynor recovered from the shock of Kerrigan’s return.

Matt spoke first to Raynor, “There’s no telling what the Zerg will throw against us this time. Sir, we need to make sure our hardware and munitions are up to the challenge.”

“Yeah, I’ll check in with Swann down in the armory. Knowin’ him, he’s already got upgrades for us,” Raynor responded.

Matt voiced his concerns with Tychus being on his bridge. Raynor assured him that Tychus was one of his oldest buddies and that he owed Tychus for saving him from jail time. Matt was still unconvinced about Tychus’ trustworthiness, so was Sweetie.

Tychus asked Raynor how he got his hands on an impressive ship like the Hyperion to which Raynor told him that he ‘borrowed’ it from Mengsk.

Matt asked Tychus why he was still wearing a CMC suit on his bridge. Raynor was wondering about that as well. Tychus tells everyone that he’s stuck in the suit until his debts were paid off, mentioning that Moebius was collecting the debts. Apparently, they really wanted the artifacts.

This raised a flag in Sweetie’s mind; why would Moebius, who were supposed to be legitimate, trap someone in a suit as debt collateral? This made Sweetie suspicious that there was either more to this or Tychus was giving a mix of lies and truth.

As much as she would have preferred to nip the ‘Tychus’ issue in the bud, she decided to wait a little longer when she had the means to act with the necessary knowledge.

Meanwhile, Matt reported that the Dominion fleet was pulled back to defend the core worlds and abandoned the fringe worlds. This meant that sooner or later, one of the fringe colonies was going to call for help. For the time being, building up a decent fighting force would take priority before dealing with the Zerg directly.

Raynor, Sweetie and Lyra went to the armory to check up on Swann.

Swann happily greeted his guests, “Hey everybody! Our glorious leaders have returned! What’s up, you three?”

“What do ya got for me Swann?” Raynor asked.

“The usual - buildin’ up our standin’ forces.”

“Bringin’ my troops and hardware up to speed, huh?”

“Yup. You can add upgrades for their tech right here on the console.” Swann gestured to the device right next to him. “But buildin’ an army on the run ain’t cheap. You brought back credits this time, right?”

“Yep,” Sweetie spoke up. “Got enough on me for some top-of-the-line upgrades for everything. And if not, Raynor can probably scrape up the rest,” saying the last part with a smirk.

Raynor chuckled at the jab made at his expense. He then asked Swann about when they planned to get new hardware. Swann replied about getting schematics from various jobs and the rest they had to beg, borrow, or steal for.

Raynor and Sweetie looked at the console for available upgrades and found that Bunkers could be outfitted with Neosteel to allow more room for troops and a Projectile Accelerator to increase the reach of weapons fire out of the Bunker.

Marines could be equipped with Combat Shields for increased survivability and StimPacks to enhance their performance. Sweetie didn’t care whether or not the Marines wore away at their own lifespans, it’s their lives to live.

Medics could be equipped with Stabilizer Med-packs to increase healing efficiency and Advanced Medic Facilities that would allow medpacks to be stored in the Barracks itself, allowing the training of Medics without the need of a Tech Lab to provide the medpacks.

Sweetie and Raynor bought all of the upgrades which made the crew and troops very happy.

As Raynor and Lyra left the armory, Sweetie asked Swann a question, “Think we can get the new Firebat suits up and running?” Sweetie handed Swann some credits. “Also, make sure they are equipped with the best on the market before next mission.”

“Hey, you got it, ranger,” Swann said.

Back on the bridge, Raynor asked Matt about the general status. A distress call was received from the colony on Agria, which was under attack by the Zerg, while another artifact fragment was found on Monlyth, which was guarded by a faction of Tal’darim.

Sweetie planned to bring Firebats into the next mission and they would be more effective against Zerg than Protoss. She voted on helping Agria. Lyra, Raynor and Matt also agreed on Agria, leaving Tychus as the only dissenting opinion who wanted to go after the artifact instead. By majority vote, the Hyperion set course for Agria.

Once in orbit of the farming colony, the Hyperion received a transmission from the colonial leader, a brown-haired woman with green eyes and wearing a turtleneck with a lab coat over it. She was identified as Doctor Ariel Hansen.

“Pleasure to meet ya’, Doc. You can call me Jim. What’s the situation?” Raynor said.

“The Zerg have overwhelmed our planetary defenses. The colony is lost. For the past twelve hours, we’ve been evacuating people to the nearest starport. But the Zerg attacks have become so intense, we can’t get any more through. If you can guard the highway, we can start sending the remaining groups every few minutes.”

Raynor reassured Ariel that they will get the colonists through to the starport safe and sound.

Raynor’s personal dropship was loaded with Lyra, Sweetie, a pair of Medics and a pair of the new and improved Firebats. Swann took the time to brag about the good deals he got for Firebat improvements. He equipped them with Incinerator Gauntlets, which added additional nozzles for better flame output over a wide area. They were also reinforced with Juggernaut Plating, making them much more durable.

The group was dropped off on the road near the settlement closest to the starport. A small number of Zerglings decided to try their luck. Sweetie and Lyra decided to stay back and watch the Firebats work. Only a few piles of ashes remained when they were done.

The group walked into the settlement and left control of the operations to the Raiders.

Since Ariel insisted that the timeline be done her way, the Raiders had to develop their base in a hurry. Knowing this, Sweetie decided it was about time to call in some mercs. Sweetie summoned a squad of War Pigs and Devil Dogs to reinforce the escort.

The first transport was soon ready for escort. On the highway, an abandoned Bunker was discovered. Ariel was visibly upset that the Dominion would simply abandon everything and leave the colonists to rot.

Groups of Zerg did make an attempt at the transport but were blown up or electrocuted by the Ponies. Zerg were rendered easy prey by Lyra’s Maelstrom.

At the end of the road, Sweetie spotted a mass of flesh that appeared to be relatively harmless while at the same time guarded by a small group of Zerglings and Hydralisks that were easily dispatched. Upon Matt’s request, Sweetie gathered a tissue sample of the fleshy mass. The Overmind had something to say about that.

~”Your Terran allies will not need to gather samples of Zerg for their research. You already know enough of our biology through myself to fully understand how we work.”~

“Perhaps, but I’ve also heard that the Moebius Foundation was offering additional credits for Zerg and Protoss Samples. We can make even more if Lyra has been paying attention to her Protoss studies.”

~”I will never understand Terran greed.”~

“I prefer to call it 'planning for the future.'”

Tychus was concerned about being able to protect the whole highway with so many Zerg around. Raynor recommended a mobile force and more Bunkers.

Sweetie had a fun idea. She had some of the Marines, Medics and Firebats follow her and Lyra.

Sweetie led the group off the western side of the highway and found another mass of flesh to gather a sample from then moved further north until they saw signs of a Zerg hive cluster. She decided to call in all of her mercenary contracts that could be allowed.

The ground force pushed into the base before the Siege Breakers went into Siege Mode and started blasting away at the base. Hel’s Angels and Jackson’s Revenge took the skies from the Mutalisks while Dusk Wings bombed the land. The remaining land-based mercenaries advanced and made sure to avoid fire from the Siege Breakers. Lyra’s Storm Charge electrocuted the Zerglings, Hydralisks, and Roaches and Sweetie’s Psionic Lash took down some of the larger targets.

The hive cluster was soon leveled and the army returned to base in time to find out the second transport was safely escorted to the starport.

After some healing and repairs, Sweetie’s merc army was ready to move again, taking some more Marines, Medics and Firebats for good measure. The third transport was ready to go once the army departed for the remaining hive cluster in the area.

Lyra took a detour on the way to the hive cluster and claimed another tissue sample for Moebius.

As she caught up the army, the attack had begun. The assault was about the same as the attack on the previous hive cluster and soon cleared the area of Zerg infestation.

As the Ponies and mercs returned to base, they received word that Zerg were now falling from orbit in living sacs.

The army made it to base in time to escort the fourth transport to the starport. Sacs began raining from the sky. Zerglings emerged and attacked the convoy. A Mindblast kept them from getting close to the colonists.

The fourth transport made it to the starport and all but one ship had departed at this point. The escorts headed back to base as they received a report that tunneling Zerg had been reported. The Overmind quickly informed Sweetie that Nydus Canals had been replaced by massive tunneling worms called Nydus Worms. They removed the limitation of location by allowing them to surface anywhere.

The final transport was ready and drove as fast as it could to the starport, which wasn’t very fast at all. On the way, more Nydus Worms popped out of the ground but that was where the entire Zerg offensive came from at this point. Lyra severed the worms from the neck as they popped up. A Mindblast from Sweetie took out any Zerg that came out of each worm’s mouth. Sacs were still raining from the sky and Zerglings emerged from the landings. At this point the Raiders had too much firepower for the Zerg to make a difference and the last transport made it to the starport unmolested.

With the colonists evacuated, the Raiders left Agria to its fate. The mercs went their separate ways, looking for their next contract, or when Sweetie called them again.

Liberty: Mining for Jorium

Once back aboard the bridge, Raynor, Sweetie and Lyra found Dr. Ariel Hanson talking to Matt about something. When Matt saw the trio come in, he informed them that Ariel was going to be staying on board for a while.

Raynor asked her what she could contribute to their operations, to which she called their medical facilities as ‘medieval’ and science expertise as ‘non-existent’. Stetmann, who was nearby, felt a little insulted from Hanson’s comment.

Raynor decided to visit the ship’s cantina for a drink while Lyra and Sweetie followed him to check out the scene. Raynor greeted a merc recruiter named Graven Hill who informed him that all the good mercenary contracts had been bought out by someone named ‘Thestral’. Raynor shrugged as he told him that Sweetie was Thestral, which was followed by Hill facepalming when he realized the obvious fact.

Lyra took notice of the arcade machine and went over to check it out. Taking an interest in the game, Lyra begged Sweetie for some money to play the game. Sweetie smiled and rolled her eyes while internally giggling as she learned that despite the harrowing experiences that she went through, some parts of Lyra didn’t change. Sweetie gave Lyra some spending money to play the game while she went to the bartender to see if he had anything new to his selections.

Sweetie overheard the news as she enjoyed a Mai Tai from the bartender. At first, they were going to report on Agria but circumstances changed to Mengsk making his own announcement. Apparently, an old soldier named Horace Warfield was coming out of retirement.

She also overheard Raynor and Tychus talking. Tychus had, apparently, tried to flirt with Hanson but figured that her attention was on Raynor.

Sweetie left the others and returned to the bridge to talk with Hanson. After exchanging greetings, Hanson was the first to begin the conversation, “I can hardly believe that I’m talking to a Pony right now. How come there have been no records of your kind in the Koprulu sector?”

“Probably because me and Lyra are the only ones in the sector. You said that the Raiders’ science and medical knowledge were medieval. Well, my peoples’ knowledge of that is probably worse. Space travel is not even imagined by anyone on Equus. Reason I’m even here is because someone on my homeworld has the power to bend the laws of time and space,” Sweetie responded.

Hanson ignored the last part and focused on the part about her peoples' lower technology level. “In that case, I’m surprised that you were able to adapt so well to our technology.”

“I’ve had over four years to learn. Lyra adapted to Protoss technology so she had an even greater hurdle to overcome.” Sweetie decided to change the subject to something more objective. She whispered to Hansen, “I need your help with a small project. Think you and Stetmann can work with the techs and analyze Tychus’ armor? I’ll need you to help monitor Tychus’ vital signs for a special procedure that I’m planning for him very soon.”

Before Hanson could inquire further, Sweetie’s communicator started beeping. Since she was already on the bridge, she had a feeling she knew who was calling. After informing Hanson of a call she had to take, she bid her farewell and wandered into a less traveled section of the Hyperion.

Activating her communicator, Sweetie spoke, “I take it your boys are ready for the first operation?”

<“Heh, clever of you to figure it was me,”> Tosh said. <“Bring Jim Raynor to Redstone III. I’ll discuss my proposition to him there.”>

“Alright, I’ll get him there,” Sweetie said. “Also, you may need something to help sweeten the deal. Got any interesting troops for the Raiders to use for their activities?”

<“I got Reapers to help you out. They are fast-moving troops that specialize in hit-and-run tactics and close quarters combat. They are equipped with jump packs that allow them to scale steep cliffs in a single bound.”>

“Anything on the market to improve their combat capabilities?”

<“The market be sellin’ U-238 rounds that were once utilized by Marines. But my boys might be able to make better use for them. There’s also a sale on G-4 Cluster Bombs that could be used to take out groups of enemies that be foolish enough to group together. Be warned though, the charges are indiscriminate.”>

“Alright, I’ll transfer the necessary credits for you to buy the market goods. I am trusting you to use the money for what I intended. You won’t live long enough to regret breaking my trust,” Sweetie threatened.

<“Heh heh, I like your spirit.”>

Ending the transmission, Sweetie returned to the bridge to find Raynor and Tychus preparing to decide the next mission. Sweetie figured Lyra must have gotten addicted to the arcade game in the cantina since she hadn't arrived yet.

“So, ready to get another artifact fragment?” Raynor asked Sweetie.

“Not yet, I just received a call from an associate of mine. He needs our assistance on a planet called Redstone III. There’s some decent reward money to be had by helping him.”

“Can’t it wait? We need to get to the artifact before someone else does,” Tychus said.

“I owe him and he’s offering the services of his Reapers for the Raiders.”

“Well hell, if Sweetie insists on this, then I see no reason to say no. But why do you owe this associate of yours?” Raynor asked.

“He gave me a nice boost to my psionic power and he spent all of his special resources on me to do so.”

“Redstone. Heck of a place. I ever mention how much I hate volcanic planets?” Raynor asked rhetorically.

A transmission was received by Tosh, <“Good to see ya made it. They call me Tosh. You help me mine the minerals I need and I’ll make it worth your while.”>

“So, you’re Sweetie’s new associate. Mind tellin’ me what we’re actually minin’? I’m sure Sweetie will tell me anyway if you don’t,” said Raynor.

Raynor looked to Sweetie for supplementary info. “Spectres are like Ghosts, except they wield stronger psionic power. The method is also risky since they need a balance of Jorium and another substance called Terrazine to prevent them from going psychotic. I went through the process myself, but I guess Humans are more prone to the psychotic behavior than Ponies.”

“Let me guess, Tosh here will be needin’ our help with gatherin’ Terrazine next?” Raynor asked.

“For now, let’s just focus on gathering the Jorium.” Sweetie turned to Tosh. “Are the Reapers ready to go?”

<”Of course. Oh, and one last bit of warning. The low ground is where the Jorium is at. However, the area gets flooded with lava every few minutes and there are Zerg in the area.”>

“Alright, thanks for the heads up.”

This time their base was set up on an elevated platform. The SCVs were mining the nearest mineral fields. The problem was that the mineral fields in the area were scarce. It wasn’t long before an alert went out for a lava surge. Everyone evacuated to high ground before the lava rose. The lava level held for a few seconds before receding.

Tosh took the time to introduce his Reapers to the Raiders. Sweetie and Lyra were intrigued with the equipment the Reapers were carrying. Sweetie believed that they could also be useful scouts.

Occasionally, the Zerg would send a few of their numbers to attack their base, but the groups were always manageable.

Tosh informed Sweetie about a missing crew in the area and wanted her to see if they were alright. Sweetie took Lyra to help her check out the last known location of the crew which was north of their location. The two of them quickly found another elevated platform just as the lava was rising again. A few Zerg were on the platform as well but were easily dispatched by the duo. They found the missing crew and a few more Reapers.

The missing crew loaded up into their Command Center and flew it over the Raiders’ base.

By the time Sweetie and Lyra returned, they received a transmission from Stermann that he wanted samples from a rare Zerg strain called a Brutalisk. Sweetie inquired the Overmind for info. It told her that it was a powerful variant of Ultralisk that was superior to the Ultralisk in size and strength. It would take a lot of firepower to bring one down. Sweetie asked if the Brutalisk could sense her cloaking to which it reassured her that it couldn’t.

Sweetie decided to experiment with her power and left Lyra to defend the base while she searched the last known location of the Brutalisk. When it was found that it had made a lair nearby, Sweetie gave an evil smirk. For her plan she had to wait a little.

When the lava alarm went off, Sweetie put her plan into action. She took control of the Brutalisk and commanded it to wait on the low ground. When the lava rose, the Brutalisk was immersed in molten rock. Its flesh was unable to bear the agonizing liquid as it seeped into the gaps in its carapace and burned the creature from the inside out.

Thankfully, enough of the Brutalisk tissue remained for Sweetie to obtain a sample.

Lyra arrived at the scene with a squadron of Marines, Medics, Firebats and Reapers. When she saw the charred remains of the Brutalisk, she asked Sweetie what happened to which she recounted the event. Lyra had only one reply to that: “You can be a little evil sometimes, you know that?” The two shared a laugh before getting down to business.

Taking the squadron, they advanced on the Zerg hive clusters. Sweetie ended up controlling some of the Zerg and commanded them to attack their own hive cluster before she had them gather up so a Reaper could plant a cluster bomb around them. Sweetie and the Marines shot down the Mutalisks.

On the way, they encountered more of Tosh’s Reapers who gathered up more of the loose Jorium in the area.

It wasn’t long before the hive clusters were wiped out and the last of Tosh’s Reapers were found. After that they had free reign of the area and gathered up enough crystals to satisfy Tosh’s demands.

Everything and everyone that wasn’t bolted to the ground were evacuated to the Hyperion before the next lava surge.

Liberty: Smash and Burn

Upon returning to the Hyperion from Redstone, Sweetie discovered that Tosh had let himself onboard. Sweetie decided to have a talk with the Spectre leader.

“Glad to see you’re upholding your end of the bargain,” Tosh said.

“Glad to see you didn’t squander my money,” Sweetie replied. “It’ll probably be some time before we help you gather the Terrazine.”

“That is fine by me. As long as it happens. You have at least gained that much of my trust.”

Horner was telling Raynor about what he found out about Tosh, which Sweetie didn’t mind at all. Raynor still kept some degree of distrust around the Spectre, though.

Raynor walked in on Sweetie’s conversation and asked, “So how did you two end up meetin’?

“I was on my last mission with Mira Horner to investigate some mysterious arms dealer and pirate.” Sweetie said Mira’s name loud enough for Matt to hear which he responded with a loud groan. “I found out that he was gathering Jorium and Terrazine which I found out could enhance psychic powers. When I found him, I entered into a deal with him. I wanted the powers and he wanted the support to gather more supplies to create more Spectres. I offered the services of the Raiders...sorry I did so without your permission, Jim...and since we have a common enemy in Mengsk, I also had him agree to ally his forces with the Raiders and lend us his Spectres until our ultimate objective is accomplished."

“And what if he betrays us? What if he’s secretly workin’ with Mengsk?”

“Guess you’ll have to figure that out for yourself,” Tosh said.

Meanwhile, Lyra was at the cantina fueling her video game addiction when the news came on. The news mentioned some kind of ‘shadow war’ waged by Dominion ghosts. No real details were given since anything relevant was being censored.

Raynor came into the cantina later and asked Tychus if he knew anything about Tosh. Tychus had only heard rumors of the Spectre being part of some rogue branch of the Ghost Program that produced some scary bad-asses. After that, Lyra stopped listening and focused on her game.

Sweetie paid the armory a visit to find Swann looking nervous and muttering something about pirates and keeping track of the inventory. Sweetie snapped him out of his thoughts when she asked if he found any new hardware.

“Yeah, I got something new for ya to try out: Marauders. The latest in big badda boom hardware,” Swann said. He gestured to a soldier in the armory. The Marauder had a similar appearance in armor design to the Firebat except the weaponry equipped to the suit was completely different; these were equipped with grenade launchers for explosive damage and were made to handle enemies with thick armor.”

“Where were these guys when we were fighting those Roaches?” Sweetie asked rhetorically. “Anyway, what upgrades did you find for them?”

“Well, since you’re bein’ so generous with the hardware upgrades, I had these guys equipped with Concussive Shells which slows down enemies. Pretty effective against those who like to get up close and personal, not so against anything huge. I also had the insides lined with a special Kinetic Foam to save the soldier inside a few concussions from heavy impacts.”

Sweetie hummed, “I suppose these guys would be useful in a supporting role, especially if we’re going against Protoss. Putting them in Bunkers with Marines would make for a decent defense in that case."

“I also bought some useful upgrades for the Missile Turrets. Some Titanium Housing to increase the integrity and Hellstorm Batteries to increase a turret’s firepower.”

“Good, I have a feeling we will be fighting Protoss soon and I don’t want to be caught with weak air defenses.”

“Heh, ya got that right.”

Sweetie left the armory to check out more of the ship.

Sweetie had just received word that the laboratory was fully operational. She took Lyra with her to check out the scene. Inside, she found the artifact fragment hovering in a containment field while being allowed to perform its usual functions. Stetmann was examining the Zerg samples in the saline tank next to him.

When he noticed the new entries, Stermann started asking for samples of their DNA, such as fur and horn samples, which they refused, Sweetie in a more threatening way. When he took the hint, Stetmann changed the subject to where he was telling them about what little he learned so far about Zerg and Protoss biology/technology respectively.

Surprisingly, Lyra and Sweetie realized they knew much more about the Protoss and Zerg than he did. The two of them began telling Stetmann about everything they knew about the two races which immensely helped his research. This freed up plenty of time for him to come up with improvements to the Raiders’ weapon systems and tactics. With his free time, he developed numerous inventions that he wanted to apply as soon as possible. Stetmann wrote up a list of suggestions and gave them to Sweetie to show to Swann who said he would implement them soon but only had enough time to install a few of them before the next operation.

With the list delivered, Sweetie and Lyra returned to the bridge and decide their next move. Since Kerrigan was looking for the artifacts, Sweetie decided that they should be looking for the next piece. Everyone agreed on the artifact hunt and set course for planet Monlyth.

The star map brought up a display of the artifact that was reportedly guarded by the Tal’darim. The image suddenly shifted to the edge of the base to reveal that Kerrigan’s Zerg were already making a move for the artifact. They needed to move fast if they wanted to get to the fragment before Kerrigan.

While everyone else was heading to the shuttles headed for Monlyth’s surface, Sweetie asked Matt something, “Can you have the techs analyze Tychus’ armor? I’d like to execute my plan with all the info I can get.”

“I’m not sure why you want to help that convict, but sure, I can help you out.”

“Thanks.”

The Raiders quickly set up the basics of a base and started getting troops ready for a run for the artifact. The Zerg were ignoring the Raiders for the most part but the Protoss had already sent Stalkers, mechanical walkers that walk on four pointed legs with particle disruptors on the main chassis.

Lyra approached the stalkers and declared herself, “I am First Ascendant Lyra Heartstrings. I demand to know who leads you.”

“We follow Executor Nyon. You and these Terrans are trespassing on sacred grounds and will leave at once.”

“Nyon huh, I was warned about your leader. Thanks for clearing that up.”

In an instant, Lyra forced her way past the Stalkers’ shields and slashed through their core modules which triggered each one to explode. Lyra avoided the explosions and rejoined Sweetie.

“Way to start using that authority, Lyra,” said Sweetie. “Sure, it may not have worked on them but I’m sure we can find some use for that later.”

A group of Zerglings and Hydralisks soon paid the base a visit and were dealt with as quickly as they came.

Sweetie took a number of each type of infantry they had available with her to attack the Zerg, grabbing the Protoss relic they found along the way. Lyra took Marines, Marauders and Medics with her to push for the artifact.

Sweetie pushed the left route toward the Zerg base and dealt with a pair of Spine Crawlers along with some Zerglings, Hydralisks and Mutalisks in the area. Some Stalkers and Photon Cannons guarded another Protoss relic. Sweetie locked the Stalkers down while the Reapers threw grenades at the cannons to quickly level them. Sweetie took the relic the Protoss were guarding.

Once the nearby Protoss were dealt with, Sweetie moved her forces into the Zerg base. While Tychus thought her plan was suicidal, Sweetie surprised him by taking control of some of the Zerg in the area and ordering them to attack their own hive cluster alongside the Raiders. Sweetie took control of the Mutalisks in the hive cluster to gain air superiority in the area. Reapers were throwing cluster bombs into the area to deal with any Zerg, including the ones Sweetie controlled. Firebats and Devil Dogs were free to burn down the hive cluster.

Meanwhile, Lyra pushed against the Tal’darim. Her troops shut down cannons by destroying Pylons. On the other side of a bridge were a pair of Sentries, robotic specialists that put up walls and provide some defense against bullets and grenades. When the sentries saw them coming, they put up walls to block the troops who focused on destroying exposed Pylons that were powering Photon Cannons while Lyra shadowstepped behind the Sentries and tore them apart.

Lyra found two more Protoss relics during her run for the artifact. She had to destroy more Tal’darim defenses to get to them.

Soon, Lyra came upon a small Tal’darim camp that was producing Zealots and Stalkers to send against her. Taking advantage of her knowledge of Protoss infrastructure, she had the soldiers focus on the Pylons and Probes before dealing with the Nexus. Without any means of restoring power, the remaining buildings were harmless.

With the artifact fragment in sight, Lyra and her troops moved forward only for the pedestal to be blocked off by stone walls. Previously inanimate statues were suddenly moving. Lyra had the troops focus on one statue while she took care of the other. One statue met its end through a storm of bullets and grenades while the other was cut off at the legs while gravity took out the remainder of the statue.

With the guardians destroyed, the walls opened up and allowed Lyra access to the relic. Raynor’s Dropship was coming so Lyra grabbed the artifact and boarded the Dropship for the Hyperion.

It was as everyone was leaving that they heard a voice that they had not heard in four years.
“I forgot how resourceful you two were, Sweetie and Lyra. I won’t make the same mistake twice,” said Kerrigan.

When she heard her, Sweetie could have sworn that the inflection in her voice was unusually drained of spirit. Sweetie suspected that four years of Amon’s influence had a negative effect on her mind. Sweetie could only hope that they could find the remaining fragments soon and hope there was something left of Kerrigan to save.

Author's Note

Since my prereader brought it up, I want to clarify something:

What transpired in the lab was that Sweetie and Lyra told Stetmann everything he needed to know about the Zerg and Protoss so every research upgrade was unlocked. For example, Vanadium Plating and Charged Capacitors are unlocked which you usually have to choose between one or the other in the actual game. I won't mention all the unlocked research in the story, just the ones that are relevant.

And yes, the Bunkers are fortified and have turrets.

Liberty: Livin' the Outlaw Life

Sweetie and Lyra noticed how stressed the other soldiers were after returning from Meinhoff. While the Ponies were out having fun and blowing stuff up, the soldiers had to endure waves upon waves of infested colonists and infested Marines. There were also reports of a strain of horribly mutated colonists that barely looked human. The creatures were huge and walked on four pointed legs with a human torso and extended arms.

Many of the soldiers went to the cantina for a drink to help them forget what they saw on the planet.

The news came on to discuss the refugee issue and how they continued to seek shelter on the Dominion core worlds and how many of them won’t make the journey. Donny, as usual, showed next to no empathy for the refugees. Whether he was paid to behave like that or that was how he actually was, was a mystery to Sweetie. She rolled her eyes dramatically.

Raynor decided to ask for Tosh’s opinion on Hanson, who basically told him that she seemed a little too nice, like she was hiding something. There was no telling whether or not she actually was, though.

Sweetie decided to go to the armory for a regular checkup with Swann to see if he had anything.

“So, what do you have for me this time?” Sweetie asked.

“Ah, nothin’ came up yet. I’m considering looking for old schematics. The newer stuff’s a bit hard to come by these days.”

Swann’s tone indicated that he was thinking about something that was upsetting him. “Something on your mind?” Sweetie asked.

“Just rememberin’ when me an’ my buddies were tryin’ to make a livin’ on Meinhoff. Kel-Morians were squeezing us dry. ‘Day we rose up...we just couldn’t take it anymore.”

“Yeah, they would have enslaved me too if I hadn’t escaped on Mar Sara.”

“Eh, you were one of the lucky ones, then.”

“I’ll be sure to count my blessings.”

Sweetie left the armory before the conversation became too awkward. She headed to the bridge to find Raynor talking to Hanson. He asked if the colonists had found a world to settle on yet. Apparently, they chose the planet Haven which was on the edge of Protoss territory. Matt was more concerned that there might be infested among the colonists or those bearing the seeds of infestation. Hanson was doing her best to not believe the possibility exists which, to Sweetie, seemed like a foolish thought to follow. Raynor warned her about the Protoss policy on Zerg infestation. Hanson decided to try researching for a way to cure the infestation. Sweetie decided to at least let her keep that hope for the time being just to keep her busy. She didn’t have the heart to tell her that she does not have the knowledge nor technology necessary to reverse an infection from a species with a highly chaotic gene pool.

~”I can sense a spore within her. It is only a matter of time before she is counted among the infested.”~

That comment had made Sweetie even more depressed. Now she had to watch the poor doctor become a twisted monster. She needed a breather from all the Zerg business.

Since Moebius was still looking for the next artifact, she would have to help Tosh with his Terrazine operation.

Matt gave another suggestion, “Sir, ma’am, I’ve been talking to the crew and they say that they could use a break from dealing with Protoss and Zerg and work on dealing with Mengsk. I’m sure Tosh and Tychus would agree on that. We’ve received reports of a new Dominion salvage operation on Tarsonis. They’re running a large number of supply trains with minimal security. If we intercept the trains and liberate their contents before they can be shipped off-world, we could make a serious profit.”

“Sounds like something we need after all the heavy stuff on Meinhoff. What do you think, Jim?” Sweetie asked.

“I don’t mind goin’ back to that graveyard if it means we can stick it to Mengsk.”

Everyone in agreement, they Hyperion set course for the ruined world of Tarsonis.

Raynor, Sweetie, Lyra, Matt and Tychus were looking at the displays on the star map.

“What do we got Matt?” Raynor asked.

“The Dominion restored power to the old rail network. They’re using the trains to move salvage to a central processing station. Our informants say the Dominion’s found something unusually valuable - and they’re transporting it to the processing station today. It’s on one of these trains - but they’re all scan-shielded so we can’t tell which one.”

“As long as our mystery item wasn’t on any of the earlier shipments, then we won’t need to worry about which train it’s on as long as we intercept every train that they send,” Sweetie said.

“Now that sounds like the best plan I’ve heard from you so far,” said Tychus.

Shortly after the operation started, Matt informed everyone of a number of unsalvaged Confederate vehicles abandoned in the hills. Swann had heard of the vehicles. He claimed that they were some kind of prototype hover tanks called Diamondbacks. Apparently the mobility and weapon systems act independently, allowing the vehicles to fire while moving. Of course, Sweetie had heard from Mira that the schematics were leaked all over the Terran sector. Mira also used them in her forces. Sweetie couldn’t help but wonder why the Raiders were among the last to utilize the old Confederate hover tanks.

Sweetie gathered a few tank pilots and began searching for more Diamondbacks.

Meanwhile an alert went out that a train just exited a tunnel northwest of their location. Lyra gathered a few Marines and the Diamondbacks that were available and went after the first train. The train was unguarded so Lyra’s group was free to unload on the armored vehicle. Lyra jumped on the train engine and created her own entrance into it. Once inside, Lyra slashed at anything and everything inside, looking for anything important. The Marines and Diamondbacks attacked the accompanying cars, tearing into the hulls and freeing the cars of their contents. The train soon fell apart and crates of Minerals and Vespene canisters littered the area.

A group of SCVs picked up the canisters.

Meanwhile, Sweetie and Lyra scoured the wasteland for anything that they could use. They found more Mineral and Vespene containers as well as the remains of Zerg Defilers.

The next train soon showed exited the western tunnel and the Dominion was starting to put escorts out to protect the trains. Marines and Firebats escorted the train and were quickly eliminated by the Ponies. Lyra repeated what she did on the first train to the second train. Because of the special armor plating, Sweetie’s Lockdown was ineffective against the trains. This increased Sweetie’s frustration. She used a Psionic Lash and devastated the cars of the train. Lyra finished up with the engine and the train fell apart.

Smashing the train had angered the local Dominion forces and have started sending attack parties to attack their base. Sweetie and Lyra decided to defend the base until the next train came along.

One attack wave later, another train exited from the southern tunnel. This was more of the same as the Ponies and Raiders unloaded their weapons at the train that added Marauders to the usual guard regiment.

In response, a number of Dominion SCVs, Marines, Firebats and Marauders were deployed at key locations along the tracks to construct Bunkers and defend the positions. For the positions that weren’t guarded by Missile Turrets, Sweetie and Lyra cleared out the bunkers and destroyed the SCVs still constructing their Bunker.

The next train added Goliaths and a Raven to the fun of train robbery. Sweetie locked down the Raven while Lyra tore apart the Goliaths. The Raiders took out the rest. Lyra finished the Raven by overloading its own energy core with its own energy.

Not much was different with the next train, except with the addition of Siege Tanks which would not be very useful when escorting a moving train. The train was derailed the same way as before.

The Dominion responded by sending large groups of Marauders to patrol the tracks. Lyra went after the Marauders alone. Since they were without a Raven to spot her, Lyra killed the entire group with a rapid series of slashes that disassembled the whole team, armor and body parts.

The Dominion tried to be clever by boosting the next couple of trains with powerful thrusters and escorted them with Hellions that were too fragile to be any challenge. Lyra slashed off the boosters from both trains and it was business as usual.

The next train was given a very large escort. Sweetie decided to call in Dusk Wings and Hel’s Angels to assist in dealing with the escorts. Advanced versions of the Dominion vehicles were added to the escort. Sweetie locked down any Ravens among them and they were taken down.

By the time the escorts were destroyed, the train was already near the exit. In one final and desperate attempt to derail the train, Sweetie ran up to the side of the engine and punched the train so hard that it actually fell off the magnetic rails.

Her hand really hurt from that punch and decided to have it looked at when she got back.

A capsule fell out of the train. When the Raiders caught up with Sweetie, they saw the capsule and opened it up to find an old adjutant.

“Adjutant 23-46...online...system recording...N-N-New Gettysburg Defense Initiative...S-S-Submit a-access codes.”

The mystery deepened. What was on the adjutant’s memory banks that Mengsk found so important? Only time and a little effort would tell.

Liberty: Gathering Terrazine

Raynor had returned to the Hyperion bridge after a brief visit to the lab. He was in a less-than-pleased mood. Sweetie noticed the mood and figured that his interactions with the old adjutant had not gone as he had hoped.

“Did the adjutant have anything useful or can we not even access the info?” Sweetie asked.

Raynor responded with a sigh, “The latter, since I’m registered as a criminal in the adjutant’s databanks, I can’t access the info.”

“Maybe I can give it a try,” Sweetie offered.

“Doubt it. If you’re not registered in the Confederate database, you’re classified as an alien and I’m pretty sure you would get the same access privileges as me.”

“Know anyone who can hack into the adjutant?”

“I think I do. Colonel Orlan at Deadman’s Port can hack into just about anything.”

“Think he’ll do it?

“‘Long as there’s something to hack into, he’ll do it. Say, didn’t someone we know end up gettin’ married last time we were there?”

Matt turned to Sweetie and Raynor, “Please don’t, sir, I already get enough of that from Sweetie.” Raynor and Sweetie shared a laugh at Matt’s expense.

Lyra was in the cantina again playing ‘Lost Viking’ and finally managed to complete it. Now, she was going for the high score.

As she was playing she listened in on the latest news broadcast. This time, Donny was comparing Raynor to Mengsk in his usual bias. He claimed that although they both rebelled against a governmental regime, Raynor was doing so while humanity was at war with the Zerg and Protoss.

Tychus sat at a table talking to one of the crew members and telling them of some of the times when he and Raynor went around the sector robbing trains, mentioning robbing the Shale Express at least a dozen times.

Sweetie went to the lab to see how Hanson was getting along with Stermann. What she wasn’t expecting was for Hanson to get her attention first.

“I heard you wrote a book about your experiences on Tarsonis during its fall. I managed to obtain a copy of it shortly before the book was banned everywhere. Was everything you said in there true? Did Mengsk really unleash the Zerg upon the planet and throw Kerrigan’s life away to them? Is he responsible for the birth of the Queen of Blades?”

“It’s all true, I’m afraid. I had a firsthand experience of the battle of New Gettysburg where Mengsk ordered me and Kerrigan to drive away the Protoss, who were trying to deal with the Zerg. Kerrigan’s signal was lost and we found her over a month later on Char, completely altered. Mengsk even openly admitted to planting enough Psi Emitters on the planet to lure billions of Zerg to the planet. He did all that to eliminate a government. He sent me and Kerrigan on a suicide mission with full intent on getting rid of us because we didn’t like his methods.”

Hanson was completely shocked that she collapsed on the floor. It took her five minutes to regain enough composure to stand back up. Another five minutes was needed for her to think clearly enough to speak again, “That’s the kind of man leading us?! Does he even realize how many lives were lost in that tragedy?! Does he even care about the lives he’s indirectly taken?!” she shouted.

“Publicly, he will say he does. In reality, they were merely stepping stones to pave his way to power. He will pay any price, short of his own life, to get what he wants.”

“My God…” she whispered. “Our Emperor is a monster. No wonder the Raiders hate him so much. He’s even worse than I could have imagined.”

Sweetie left Hanson to sort her thoughts out.

Sweetie had received notice that the Hyperion had just docked at Deadman’s Port to hand over the adjutant to Orlan. Raynor and the Ponies waited a few hours for Orlan to give the word that he finished the decryption. No word came so far. Raynor had a feeling that Orlan was about to do something he wouldn’t like.

A transmission came in from Mira. She alerted everyone that Orlan decrypted the adjutant but planned to sell it to the Dominion and he was planning on paying her to keep the Raiders away from him until the Dominion arrived.

“That’s nice, Mira, but why are you telling me all this?” Raynor asked warily.

“Because I like you and Matthew better than him, of course! Not to mention that your second-in-command is a good friend of mine. Now, match Orlan’s offer in Minerals and I will side with you. Or...”

Sweetie knew where she was going with this, “Yeah I know, I actually will call in that favor you owe me. Since he hasn’t paid you yet, I want you to capture Orlan and return our adjutant to us. You can keep whatever Minerals he scraped up.”

“Aww...I can’t kill him?”

“We may need him in the future, not unless you know a better decryption expert than Orlan.”

“Very well, I will keep him on ice for you and Raynor. I will even do that much for free. By the way, say hi to Matthew for me. Ask him why he never calls.” Matt facepalmed.

“One last thing,” Mira continued, “I forgot to give Matthew his gift last time he was here. Since you won’t be here long though, I’ll just give you the schematics to build them in the future.” Mira had the Vulture schematics uploaded into the Hyperion mainframe.

"One other thing," Sweetie said, "I want the terms for the agreements to be that either myself or Raynor can make use of the Colonel's skills without the permission of the other. Just in case one of us is unavailable."

Once the terms were agreed upon, with Raynor's acceptance of the terms, the transmission ended.

Later, the adjutant was recovered and Orlan was Mira’s prisoner. While Raynor went to have another chat with the mechanical relic, Sweetie decided to check with Swann to see if he had some upgrades for the hardware.

“What’s up, ranger? Where’ve you been? Got quite a few new pieces or hardware and some upgrades for ‘em,” Swann said.

“So, what do you have for me today?” Sweetie asked.

“I equipped the Diamondbacks with Tri-Lithium Power Cells to increase the range of their cannons and a Shaped Hull to increase their durability. May not seem like much but better than nothin’.

“I found some new upgrades for our SCVs too. I installed onboard assistants into the systems to allow multiple SCVs to coordinate with one another when constructing a building so they don’t interfere with each other’s construction efforts. I also installed extra fusion welders on each SCV to increase their efficiency when they repair buildings.

“As for those metal deathtraps called Vultures (Don’t tell Jim I said that), I could only find upgrades for those Spider Mines they carry around. I installed a microfabricator that allows them to convert minerals into more Spider Mines. I also increased their detection range and blast radius.”

Just when I thought they couldn’t get anymore dangerous… Sweetie thought.

“I also got the Goliath schematics recently and found some upgrades to their targeting systems. Normally, Goliaths can’t attack a ground target and an air target at the same time, but with the new weapon system, that becomes a possibility. The Ares-class Targeting System also lets them lock onto targets from a greater range.”

“Impressive, we certainly got a lot of new stuff lately,” Sweetie said.

“Look forward to what comes next. I got a guy who’s sellin’ me Siege Tank schematics. Don’t have ‘em yet, but soon.”

“I will look forward to it.” Sweetie left the armory and returned to the bridge.

Sweetie felt like she had delayed Tosh’s request long enough and convinced Raynor and Matt to head to Bel’Shir to gather the Terrazine gas.

Raynor, Tosh, Sweetie and Lyra observed an image of Bel’Shir on their screen. Tosh commented that the jungle planet was much prettier than Redstone.

“I don’t like fightin’ Protoss if I can help it,” Raynor said.

“Not just any old Protoss - fanatics called the Tal’darim,” Tosh said.

“I don’t remember any Tal’darim force acting around here. If Executor Nyon is leading this force, he’s a little far from any of the Xel’naga artifacts,” Lyra commented.

“Whaddya know about this Nyon person?” Raynor asked.

“Not much, the guy was considered weak by Tal’darim standards when he lost his mind to Terrazine exposure. He’s unreasonably fanatical to the Xel’naga and believes that guarding artifacts is his divine purpose.”

“Sounds like negotiatin’ is off the table. Lyra, how ‘bout you and Sweetie get somethin’ together and drive the Tal’darim from the area while my boys get the Terrazine.

“Another chance to see the Thestral in action? This I gotta see,” Tosh said.

Sweetie and Lyra had gathered a few Marines, Medics and Marauders by the time Nyon decided to contact the Raiders and demand that they leave.

“Hi Nyon, I’m First Ascendant Lyra. We’re here for your ‘Breath of Creation’ and you’re not stopping us.”

<”Very well. Tal’darim warriors, execute these interlopers and seal away our altars.”>

“I hope you got a plan,” Raynor said.

“I do, just need to wait. In the meantime, get those troops ready,” Lyra said.

Sweetie was glad to see that Lyra was finally stepping up. As they waited for troops to arrive, Nyon’s forces made an attempt to cap an altar. Lyra sensed the presence of Protoss near the altar and locked on to them. The next moment, she lit her horn and teleported to the Probe working on the altar and slashed it in two. Before the escorts could react, Lyra teleported back to Sweetie.

The process continued to repeat until a significant number of Marines, Medics, Marauders and Goliaths were gathered to attack the Tal’darim. They began by attacking the nearby Tal’darim outpost which provided little resistance. The High Templar burst into light by Lyra’s Feedback. Scouts and Void Rays were locked down then shot down. Lyra continued to teleport to enemy Probes and dividing them in two.

Soon, the Tal’darim forces were forced back to the main base. Sweetie and Lyra split their forces and attacked their base from both entrances. Nyon’s forces were unable to properly react to the pincer attack and was soon overwhelmed. With the main base leveled in a storm of bullets, grenades, missiles and psionic blasts, the Tal’darim were forced to retreat.

Seizing the opportunity, the Raiders sent SCVs to every Terrazine altar in the area and harvested them all dry of their gaseous contents. Tosh was very surprised that he would be getting a lot more Terrazine than he asked for.

Liberty: Power of the Sun

Sweetie and Lyra returned to the bridge after enjoying a salad from the ship’s cafeteria. When they arrived, Matt notified Sweetie that he received an encrypted transmission from an unknown source. It detailed some of Tosh’s past as a member of Project Shadowblade, who use Jorium and Terrazine to enhance Ghost powers.

Tosh didn’t deny the accusation, further detailing that he was referred to as a Spectre.

“Well, not really any news there. Sweetie already told me that much back on Mar Sara,” Raynor said. “Any idea where the transmission came from?” he asked Matt.

“No sir. But it does end with ‘I’ll be in touch soon,’” Matt responded.

“It’s Mengsk - trying to turn us against each other. Don’t let him,” Tosh warned.

“Anyone you know that would use this method to communicate with us?” Sweetie asked.

“Could be any Ghost. But if there’s one that might personally have it out for me, it would be one of his top assassins, Nova Terra.”

“Got any info on her?”

“We used to be close once. We trained together at the same academy. Participated in a number of mission together, even shared a passionate moment every now and then. Unfortunately, that was not meant to last. She subjected herself to numerous memory wipes while I became immune to them. She is nothing more than a tool for Mengsk to use and discard as he wishes, now.”

“I’ll keep that in mind when we meet.”

Lyra went to the cantina to fuel her addiction to the game, at least until she beats the top score. Crew members were starting to place bets on when she will do so. A few suggested that she won’t. More believed that she might within a week.

As this was going on, the news gave a special report of a Dominion weapons plant exploding and taking out several housing complexes with it, killing thousands. Dominion Security wanted to blame Raynor, but the modus operandi didn’t fit the rebel leader, suggesting that someone or some people with sophisticated stealth technologies were responsible.

Meanwhile, Sweetie talked to Swann at the armory. Since he had mentioned Siege Tanks last time, she was eager to learn if there was anything he had done to improve the destructive power of the vehicle.

“So, you’re here to find out what improvements I made for the Siege Tanks?” Swann asked.

“What do you have for me?” Sweetie asked.

“Well I got some improved shells for the shock cannons for their siege mode. Not only are the shells reshaped by a disposable AI in each shell to reduce friendly fire, but the shells are equipped with an armor-piercing tip that devastates the primary target.”

“Well, I’m glad that I won’t have to worry as much should I wind up in the field with one of our Siege tanks firing at my position,” Sweetie said before thinking, “Not that I’d be stupid enough to engage enemies from a position like that.”

“So, tell me about yourself. I’ve seen you around long enough but I don’t know much about you. Only know what I do from the commander.”

With nothing better to do, Sweetie and Swann went to the cantina to have a drink and talk about themselves. Swann talked about the more interesting parts of his early life, his time as a slave worker on Meinhoff, and the time he lost his left arm. Sweetie talked about her days as an agent for S.M.I.L.E. and some of the events that led her to the Koprulu sector, leaving out as much of the magical details as possible.

As time passed, Swann was looking a little drunk while Sweetie was able to hold her drinks better than he could. Sweetie decided that she had enough and went back to her room and waited for Lyra so they could spend some alone time together. She didn’t have to wait long.

The next day, relative to onboard time, Sweetie and Lyra went to the bridge to discuss their next operation.

Tychus had received word from Moebius that another artifact fragment had been located and they were being sent to acquire it. The fragment was located on a dead world called Xil. Apparently, whatever life had existed on the planet went extinct eons ago. The ruins likely held useful relics but the large structure that was targeted by Moebius was where the artifact fragment was stored.

Moebius sent a specialist team two days ago but lost contact with them. The equipment was left behind though, which struck Sweetie as odd. There was also a giant laser drill that the team intended to use to open the decrepit structure.

Scans were unable to locate the specialist team, nor the mysterious cause of their disappearance. Sweetie and Lyra, however, had a hunch about what happened. The possibility of his involvement was too great to dismiss.

Not even a minute into their arrival on the dead planet and they ran into a Tal’darim patrol.

<“You again? As if desecrating our altars was bad enough, now you seek to plunder the treasures of this world?”> Nyon said.

“You wouldn’t have to complain about it so much if you would learn to respect my rank,” Lyra countered.

<”I am above even the Highlord. My purpose has been given to me directly from the Xel’naga.”>

“He must be really high on Terrazine to say something like that,” Lyra whispered to Sweetie.

Sweetie locked down the Stalkers while Lyra outmatched the Zealots and dispatched them quickly. Sweetie mercilessly blasted the helpless Stalkers.

As they advanced, Raynor warned of a threat of multiple Photon Cannons around the corner. Swann had a pair of Siege Tanks deployed to deal with them from outside the Cannons’ range.

Further ahead, another patrol was hunting them from the lower ground. The Siege Tanks positioned themselves on the high ground to give them enough freedom to attack without retaliation.

With the second patrol eliminated, the Raiders were free to inspect the Moebius base. What surprised Sweetie the most was the fact that the Tal’darim left the equipment intact, this told Sweetie that Nyon was either a genius for potentially sabotaging a base or an idiot for simply leaving the equipment alone. After inspecting the base, Sweetie concluded the latter.

With the base functions taken over by the Raiders, it was time to resume the operation that the Moebius team left behind.

“Fire it up! One hundred and seventy four gigawatts - ‘the power of the sun at your fingertips.’ Now get it aimed at that door and let’s get cuttin’!” Tychus stated as the laser drill was activating.

Once the laser drill began burning its way into the structure, Nyon alerted his nearby troops to attack them. Thankfully, there were only two easily defendable positions into the base. Bunkers filled with Marines and Marauders with Siege Tanks adding to the defense would make the base difficult to infiltrate.

Sweetie didn’t want to take chances so she had a number of Missile Turrets installed near the drill in case the Tal’darim wanted to deploy their ships.

The Tal’darim began sending waves of attackers against the Raiders. Siege Tanks played a crucial role in the defense with Marauders and their concussion grenades dazing them long enough to be taken out at range.

Soon, the Tal’darim began sending tougher enemies to deal with. Archons gathered outside their bases along with another mechanical enemy that Lyra had learned about during her stay with the Slayn Tal’darim. She told Sweetie that they were called Immortals and their shields were especially difficult to penetrate. With few options available to them, the Raiders decided to stop drilling for a moment and fire it at the Immortals and Archons.

Knowing that this would take a while if Nyon kept sending tough enemies their way, Sweetie decided that they needed to go on the offensive. Gathering a team of Marines, Marauders, Medics and Siege Tanks, Sweetie led an assault on the northern Tal’darim base.

While the group managed to do some damage, they were ultimately wiped out, but not before allowing Sweetie a means of sneaking into their base without issue. Nyon made another foolish mistake, Sweetie noticed. He didn’t bring Observers.

Capitalizing on that, Sweetie directed the drill at the Tal’darim structures and blasted them one by one, prioritizing the Photon Cannons to prevent Sweetie from being discovered. Sweetie dealt with any Probes that wandered too far from their Nexus while the drill continued to slowly level the Tal’darim base. Soon, the northern base was wiped out, leaving the defenders with less to deal with.

Nyon stepped up his game by sending Scouts, Void Rays and what Lyra called Warp Prisms directly at their base. They were all shot down by the numerous Missile Turrets defending the drill.

Lyra was curious about the smaller ancient structures nearby so she checked them out herself, bringing a pair of Siege Tanks as escort. The tanks destroyed any Photon Cannons near the ruins and Lyra slashed apart the Protoss in the area. After, she directed the drill to open up the structures in the ruins so she could check out what was inside. She found a number of Protoss relics which left her wondering if the race that once lived there were related to the Protoss or if the Tal’darim stored their relics in the ruined structures. She was almost certain it was the latter.

Sweetie decided to finish the job against Nyon’s forces and use another group to attack the base to the east. Sweetie managed to sneak inside again and directed the drill against the structures. A garrison was left in the previous base to make sure any sneaky Probes don’t get the bright idea to rebuild in the area.

Once the last of the Tal’darim in the area were eliminated or forced to retreat, the Raiders had all the time in the world to open the ancient temple and escape with the artifact. Nyon sent one last transmission before he fled, displaying pure anger at being bested again.

With the third fragment of the ancient relic collected, the Raiders abandoned the dead world and returned to the Hyperion.

Liberty: Confrontation

Lyra, Sweetie and Raynor personally made sure that the third fragment of the Xel’naga artifact was secure in the lab. While most Terrans would find the psionic emanations from the artifact fragments to be weird and borderline supernatural, Lyra and Sweetie were used to psionic energy at this point to not be fazed. The Overmind, however, felt pain from being around the artifact.

The three of them left the lab and walked down an access corridor. Raynor took a swig from his flask as they walked.

Suddenly, the lights in the corridor began to mysteriously go out. While Raynor found this startling, Sweetie and Lyra could feel a familiar presence near them.

“Hi Master Zeratul!” Lyra spoke happily.

The form of the middle-aged Nerazim appeared before the trio. “Greetings, friend Raynor, friend Sweetie Drops and sister Lyra Heartstrings. I bring tidings of doom.”

“I guess this means that they are beginning to awaken?” Sweetie asked.

“Yes, the time has come to gather our allies and prepare for the coming war.”

“I actually encountered one of them on Slayn not long ago,” Lyra said.

Raynor was completely lost in the conversation. “Can somebody tell me what the hell’s goin’ on?”

“Would you believe me if I said that the true threat to Humanity is beginning to emerge? Someone out there has been cross-breeding Protoss and Zerg to create powerful monsters and is gathering them for one big war for the future of the universe,” Sweetie said.

Raynor sighed, “Wonderful, as if we didn’t have enough on our plate. What’re we supposed to do ‘bout this?”

“We need to be prepared to face the coming war. For one, we need to save Kerrigan and make sure the Swarm doesn’t fall into Amon’s hands.”

“Who’s Amon?” Raynor asked.

“In a nutshell, the guy who’s ultimately responsible for Humanity’s Zerg and Protoss issues; an evil Xel’naga that wants to erase the universe and remake it how he wants.”

Raynor blinked several times as he tries to take in what Sweetie said. He opened his flask and downed the rest of his drink. When he didn’t feel drunk enough, he walked the rest of the way to the cantina.

“I think you broke him,” Lyra said.

“Hopefully, a little time will be all he needs to come to grips with what I just said. If he chooses not to believe, I’ll let the facts speak for themselves; even if I have to show him the Overmind’s vision.”

Zeratul, who had been watching the spectacle, decided that his presence was no longer required. He handed Lyra a crystal for her, Sweetie and Raynor to look into later and faded into the shadows. The lighting in the corridor returned to normal. The Ponies followed Raynor to the cantina.

They noticed Tychus sitting next to Raynor. Tychus couldn’t get a response from the rebel commander. When he saw Sweetie and Lyra, he decided to talk to them instead.

“What in the hell got into him?”

“He just heard some things that he’s struggling to comprehend,” Sweetie said.

“Huh, anyway, I was tryin’ to tell him that the Zerg are about to invade Tyrador, the main research facility for the Moebius Foundation.”

Sweetie hummed, “I guess Kerrigan is looking for the locations of the remaining artifact fragments. I take it that Moebius already knows where the remaining pieces are located.”

“I would guess so.”

“Well, I guess we’re going to Tyrador. I need to have a few words with Kerrigan anyway.”

As Sweetie and Lyra were about to leave the cantina, the news came on. Donny was saying that the Dominion was ready to fight the Zerg but didn’t say when. When Kate asked about when, Donny made himself out as a little paranoid when he claimed that the Zerg were watching their broadcast. Sweetie rolled her eyes.

Upon arrival above Tyrador, the Hyperion receives a transmission from the head researcher of Moebius, Dr. Narud. Almost immediately, Sweetie and Lyra feel a familiar power coming from Narud, one they hadn’t felt in years. However, since the artifacts took priority over confronting the familiar scientist, they kept the knowledge to themselves for the time being.

Narud spoke a little on Raynor’s past before Raynor made him get to the point. Narud wanted the Moebius data cores destroyed before Kerrigan can get to them. Since Kerrigan had no idea where the data cores were, she would be searching the various buildings in the city before she finds a data core.

The operation got started just in time for Kerrigan to begin her methodical search pattern. Turns out, she was already close to one of the cores. The city was overrun with Zerg and there were moderate numbers of Zerg at each data core.

Since time was of the essence, Narud lent the Raiders the Moebius Medivacs to allow them to ferry troops all over the city.

However, Swann had other plans to ferry troops in the form of using the massive Hercules transports. Raynor also intended to have Science Vessels escort the transports and use their repair nanomachines to patch up any damage the transport may receive.

Some Siege Tanks were in place to defend the immediate area from anything dangerous. Sweetie called in Siege Breakers and War Pigs to fortify the defenses.

Sweetie quickly ordered the construction of a Starport in order to get the transports up and going. Meanwhile, she noticed through the scope of her rifle that Kerrigan was closing in on the first core and they had to hurry. She also noticed a number of mercenaries standing near one of the data cores doing nothing.

Thinking quickly, Sweetie boarded one of the Medivacs and ferried herself to the mercenaries. Once she arrived, she quickly got the group motivated and everyone began firing at the first data core building. Thankfully, the data cores were fragile enough that bullets could destroy them.

Kerrigan taunted Raynor, Sweetie and Lyra through her usual means. Sweetie could see that the years had not made her any wiser since she almost acted as if her taunts were weakening their resolve.

Since she was sure that Raynor could handle the rest of the operation himself, Sweetie had Lyra come with her. Using the Medivacs, the mercenaries were transported back to base while one Medivac picked up Sweetie and Lyra and, by their request, dropped them off directly in Kerrigan’s path. The Medivac flew a safe distance away while the Ponies moved toward Kerrigan. Lyra immediately teleported to the roof of a nearby building to observe.

When the infested Ghost noticed them, she stopped inspecting the building next to her and faced them. “You actually came to me by yourselves, you must be more foolish than I thought.”

“I came here to talk to you,” Sweetie said.

“‘Talk?’ What are you planning? Is this a distraction while Jim destroys the other data cores?”

“That’s one part of it. The other part is that I wish to discuss with you the purpose of your infestation. There’s no point in hunting the artifacts yourself since they will all ultimately wind up on your doorstep once they are all gathered.”

“True, very well, I shall hear what you have to say. Who knows, you may even amuse me.”

“I know that the Overmind never told you your purpose with the Swarm. Despite what you may think, you were not designed to be a mere agent like the Cerebrates. Your original purpose was to take control of the Zerg once it was gone and rebel against the one who gave rise to the Zerg and Protoss.”

“It would seem that the Overmind vastly overestimated its chances against the terrifying force that comes to claim us all. It can’t be stopped.”

“I beg to differ. Maybe if you would stop listening to the voice of Amon in your head, maybe you will realize that your indomitable will could be the key to save the Zerg from being Amon’s slaves.”

“And then what? If you know of Amon’s existence then you should know that he is far too powerful. No force in this universe can stop him.”

“Then why did the Overmind even bother to create you? We are talking about an ancient being of great knowledge and reason. In the state it was in, all it could do was think and command Zerg. Right now, when I look at you, I see something that the Overmind had that you lack: hope.”

Sweetie received word through her comms that the final data core had been destroyed. Knowing this, Sweetie decided to wrap up their conversation. “I would suggest you think about what I said, Kerrigan. You are the key to stopping Amon’s plans. We will meet again on Char where I will save you from his influence.”

With that, Lyra teleported Sweetie to her before they boarded the nearby Medivac and retreated back to the Hyperion.

Liberty: Ragnarok on Valhalla

Sweetie returned to the armory to check in with Swann about any new upgrades. What she saw was Swann with a concerned look on his face.

“Hey ranger, what the hell happened to our leader? He looked really rough, sayin’ he saw something ‘bout the end of the world or somethin’.” Swann said.

“He must have been looking at that Protoss relic we acquired recently. It’s pretty much the Protoss version of a video journal. His old friend, Zeratul, wanted us to look at it. I guess he got a head start on it.”

“Hope he snaps out of it soon.” Swann then changed the subject. “So, you here to check out the newest tech?” Sweetie nodded. “Well, I took a look at our structures and I realized that they lacked something that shoulda been put into each structure a long time ago, like years ago: a fire suppression system.” Sweetie was curious about the technology, as a system like that could be very useful back in Equestria. “I also made some changes to the Command Center schematics to include a built in comsat module to replace the old comsat stations. They not only have the same functions as the addons, but they can also call down a prototype Mobile Utility Lunar Excavator or MULE. They gather minerals better than SCVs but their power supply is crap. They run out of juice after about a minute.”

“Is it worth using that function?”

“Sure, they don’t cost nothin’ and all it takes is a little juice from the Orbital Command Center. So I say it’s practically free labor.”

Swann moved on to the next bit of hardware in the armory. “I made some improvements to the Medivac Dropships. Though, thanks to the Hercules and the more efficient Medics, they didn’t improve their usefulness very much. Rapid Deployment Tubes let troops drop off faster and the Advanced Healing AI lets it heal twice the number of troops with twice the rate of energy depletion.”

“I don’t think we will be seeing much use out of those. The Hercules can carry a lot more and bringing a few Medics along will pretty much cover all of the uses of the Medivac.” Sweetie pondered for a moment. “We have plenty of ground power at this time but we could really use the air support. Any chance on getting the Viking schematics?”

“Yeah, I got a guy who’s willing to sell me the Viking schematics. It’ll take some time to come to an agreement on the transaction, but I’ll get them soon. In the meantime, I managed to get the old Wraith schematics loaded up. They’ll have to do for now. I improved them a little with new power cells that let the ones that are fresh off the assembly line stay cloaked for longer. I also installed an improved cloaking field that lets cloaked Wraiths avoid projectiles twenty percent of the time.”

Sweetie sighed. “It’ll have to do. We need good air coverage for the battles ahead. I’m gonna go check on Jim.” Sweetie left the armory to go look for Raynor in the cantina.

Sweetie spotted the rebel leader looking slumped over and a bottle on the table. Raynor was startled awake from the sound of Sweetie’s hoofsteps. His movement knocked the bottle off the table, which Sweetie caught and put back on the table.

Sitting at the table, Sweetie addressed the rebel leader, “You look like you need someone to talk to.”

“Yeah, everything’s pilin’ up: Zeratul’s prophecy, seein’ Kerrigan again, these Hybrids showin’ up, fightin’ the Tal’darim over some artifact fragments...What’re we even doing?”

Sweetie took a moment to consider what to tell him, then decided to explain a few things. “What if I were to tell you that the completed artifact could be used to turn Kerrigan human again?”

Raynor looked Sweetie in the eyes, “I thought you needed Kerrigan to save the Zerg?”

“I do, but I also need to get the mutagen out of her system so Amon can stop trying to manipulate her. I’m sure you would prefer a Kerrigan that wasn’t acting like a total bitch, infested or not.”

“Yeah, well, not infested would be preferred.”

Tychus was the one who greeted Sweetie and Raynor when they returned to the bridge. “Y’know, I’ve been thinkin’ ‘bout Tyrador and I gotta say, there’s gotta be a better way to make a fast buck than divin’ headlong into an alien invasion,” Tychus said.

“Whether we get paid or not is irrelevant at this point, Tychus. We need to use the artifacts to stop the Queen of Blades,” Sweetie said.

“I didn’t sign up for no alien war.”

“No, but you do owe me for your freedom. Besides, the Zerg won’t stop their rampage until humanity goes extinct. So, you’re not safe whether you’re part of the war or not.”

Tychus growled. Before he decided to walk off, Matt offered a suggestion, “Perhaps we should make a move on the Dominion for the time being. The decrypted adjutant contains records proving Mengsk ordered the massacre on Tarsonis, now we just need to broadcast those records. Mira Han gave us a tip that might help. The Dominion is unveiling a new war machine called the ‘Odin’ on Korhal. If we hijack the Odin we can use it to gain access to the UNN studios and broadcast the records of Mengsk’s war crimes. The Odin is currently in the testing facility on Valhalla.”

“Any info on it?”

“It’s an experimental super heavy siege walker designed for prolonged frontline combat. Very powerful.”

Tychus looked at the video of the Odin in action. His eyes almost popped out of his head. “Sweet mother of mercy! It’s all my favorite holidays all wrapped into one!”

The Odin was massive. The armor of the bipedal combat walker was thick. It had about four artillery cannons on its back and shock cannons on its arms. It also contained a missile launcher to offer the machine some means of attacking air units. Despite all the destructive weaponry she saw, Sweetie had a feeling that there was more to the machine than what she saw.

“Just don’t wreck it, Tychus.” Raynor said.

Tychus, Sweetie, and a few Marines and Medics were deposited just outside the facility where the Odin was kept. Tychus planted a few charges to blow open the door. When the charges detonated, Tychus led the group into the assembly room.

Sweetie started sniping the guards before Tychus and the Marines engaged them. When the guards ahead noticed the intruders, they activated the auto-turrets. Sweetie locked down the turrets and used a Mindblast to eliminate a group of guards while sniping the Medics.

Once the area was cleared of guards, Tychus activated the assembly and the Odin’s parts were brought together. Tychus boarded the Odin and started getting a feel for the controls. Raynor told Tychus to hold his position but the convict wasn’t listening. He blew open the gate to the rest of the complex. When Raynor told Tychus to stand down, Matt informed him that his communicator was stuck on transmit and he couldn’t hear them.

When Sweetie found out about the issue, she charged toward the Odin and jumped on it. She then began to climb the massive mech toward the cockpit. Once on top of the Odin, Sweetie began angrily stomping her way toward the cockpit, making sure that Tychus could hear her. Once she was standing on the hatch, she began pounding on the metal of the machine with her fists, being careful not to smash the glass.

Tychus opened the hatch. “What’re you doin’ up there, Sweetie?”

Sweetie ground her teeth. She sent a harsh glare at Tychus. “Your communicator is stuck on transmit. Jim was trying to tell you to hold position and now the Dominion will be on our asses because you acted too early, you idiot,” she shouted.

“Whoa, relax. We got all the firepower we need with this thing,” Tychus responded.

Sweetie took a moment to calm herself before making Tychus do a comms check to make sure he was both receiving and transmitting.

Satisfied, Sweetie climbed off the Odin and ran to the base being set up.

A pair of Dominion Battlecruisers moved toward Tychus to destroy the Odin. Swann had a few Wraiths ready to take on the Battlecruisers. They engaged their cloaking and let the Odin take the brunt of Battlecruiser fire while the Wraiths shot down the capital ships.

Lyra considered sneaking ahead and taking on some of the Dominion bases, but Sweetie rejected the idea on the notion that the Dominion may have Orbital Command Centers that they could use to reveal her location. Instead, Sweetie had Lyra focus on keeping any Dominion attack parties away from the base.

Meanwhile, a significant number of Wraiths were manufactured and sent to protect the Odin. A few SCVs were also sent to make sure the Odin stayed in good shape since it needed to be that way for the Korhal presentation. A few Science Vessels were also built to keep the Wraiths in the air and assist in keeping the Odin repaired.

Once the Odin’s defenders were gathered, Raynor had Tychus engage the nearby Dominion base. Sweetie followed the Odin into the base. She got a firsthand look at the Odin’s destructive capabilities and couldn’t help but feel impressed with what humanity had built.

Speaking of human invention, Sweetie’s TNOD was reacting to nearby nuclear weapons. Since the changes in Terran technology, Science facilities were now used for what they were supposed to be made for, science. The Nuclear Silo and Covert Ops addons were put together into one structure called a Ghost Academy. In some ways it made sense to put Ghosts and Nukes in one place, in other ways it didn’t because of the risk of trainees suffering from nuclear fallout.

After leveling the first base, Tychus took a break and opened a can of beer that he had been carrying with him for some reason.

Sweetie decided on a preemptive strike against the next base by launching their own Nukes against them. By the time Tychus was ready for the next attack, Sweetie had already leveled a good amount of the second base.

Tychus came in and finished the base off. He began bombarding areas with the massive cannons on the Odin’s back.

Since Tychus had the rest under control, Sweetie scouted the next base. With the defenses becoming more formidable, Sweetie called in Hel’s Angels and Jackson’s Revenge to add to Tychus’ air support.

Thankfully for Sweetie, the Dominion in the area were stupid enough to reload their Nuclear Silos. She got off a few more Nuclear Strikes before Raynor let Tychus advance.

With the attacks against the Raiders base becoming increasingly scarce, Lyra decided to move against the Dominion on her own. Discovering the lack of Orbital Command Centers, Lyra informed Sweetie of her discovery before attacking any Dominion outside the range of the Ravens’ detection area. When she saw one, Lyra caused a Feedback that took down the drones. Sweetie arrived at the base that Lyra was attacking and took advantage of their foolish decision to keep reloading their silos by using their own Nukes against them.

Tychus finished off the fourth base while Sweetie and Lyra were opening the way for Tychus at the final base and he decided to take the time to use the facilities built into the machine, which sort of made sense to Sweetie for it to have one.

The Wraiths guarding Tychus went after a prototype Battlecruiser called the Loki. Just like most Battlecruisers, it was still not designed to handle a large number of fighters and fell from the air just like any other Battlecruiser.

Feeling like they did enough damage to the last base and sinking every Battlecruiser there, Sweetie and Lyra withdrew and let Tychus deal the finishing blow by launching a Nuke that was loaded in the Odin. The blast finished off the remnants of the Dominion in the facility.

With the Odin secured, it was only a matter of smuggling the Odin with Tychus in it to Korhal where they would soon cause some havoc in Augustgrad.

Liberty: SCP Haven

Tychus celebrated his decimation of the Dominion on Valhalla by launching shells into the air. Sweetie rolled her eyes and chuckled.

Once he was done, Sweetie opened a channel with Tychus, “Alright, Tychus, time to get out of the mech so the maintenance crews can clean it and repair any damages you may have caused to it.”

<”Hey, you almost make it sound like I don’t take care of my toys.”>

Sweetie smirked, “I don’t know, you do look like the type who breaks everything he gets his hands on,” she said jokingly. Tychus rolled his eyes.

Tychus exited the Odin and returned with Sweetie and Lyra to the Hyperion.

At the cantina, Raynor commented about Tychus not losing his edge despite his time in a cryo prison. Tychus responded that fear and violence always brought out the best in him.

Raynor changed the subject and asked how the Odin rated in his opinion. Tychus had a very high opinion of the war machine, he nearly cried tears of joy just thinking about it.

Not much was said in the news that the Raiders didn’t already know. What was amusing was when Kate one upped Donny by stealing his interview with General Warfield. The Dominion did notice the brief loss of communication with the Valhalla facility, but paid no mind to it, thankfully.

Meanwhile, at the armory, Sweetie asked Swann if he could make something like the Odin. Swann commented that the scale was too big to be mass-producing the Odin.

“Try making one economy-sized then,” Sweetie said.

“Huh, reduce the scale and we can be more realistic with producing more. Maximum scale I can work with would be about the size of the smaller Battlecruisers. I think I can work with that though.

“Anyway, my guy came through with the Viking schematics. Had to pay extra to have the upgrades installed with the schematics. But I figured you wouldn’t mind since that’s the reason you handed me most of your credits in the first place.” Sweetie smiled and shook her head to tell him that she didn’t mind. “I got the range increased and installed Ripwave Missiles that hit flyers with blasts of sub-atomic shrapnel.”

“That sounds useful, especially since Zerg flyers have a habit of bunching up,” Sweetie said. “So, any future hardware you have your eye on?”

“It’ll take some time for me to figure the right balance of scale and firepower before I can mass-produce something like the Odin. And the Dominion have been keeping a monopoly on Battlecruiser schematics since they want to have as few rivals as possible having that kind of tech. But I think I know a guy who knows a guy who has the schematics for the new Banshees. Fingers crossed.”

Sweetie said her usual goodbyes to the chief engineer and returned to the bridge.

When she arrived she saw Hanson talking to Raynor, though Sweetie noticed that she wasn’t looking well. Hanson told Raynor that her people established a new colony on Haven but the colony had gone dark, becoming unresponsive to any of her communications. The last one she received from them was that there was a small outbreak of infected colonists and they were doing their best to contain it.

Wanting to put Hanson’s fears to rest, Raynor set course for Haven.

What the crew of the Hyperion saw came as a surprise to some, not so for others. A fleet of Daelaam ships were preparing for their procedural purification process. Hanson begged Raynor to stop the Protoss from purifying the colony.

Raynor opened a channel to the Daelaam fleet to find the one leading the fleet was Executor Selendis.

“En Taro Adun, James Raynor. Your bravery and service to Aiur are known to us. And greetings to you as well, Sweetie Drops and Lyra Heartstrings,” said Selendis.

“En Taro Adun, Selendis. Listen - with all due respect, your fleet needs to pull back. The people on Haven are no threat to you,” Raynor said.

“Our Observers detected Zerg hive spores infesting the colonists. They must be purified. If you wish to undertake this mission in our stead, we will permit it.”

Hanson stepped in on the conversation, violently coughing as she did so. Sweetie noticed her condition was beginning to worsen; it wouldn’t be long now before the infestation took hold of her. “Jim, some of my people are infested but you can’t let the Protoss just destroy them all! If you keep the Protoss at bay, I know I can find a cure for the infestation,” she said.

“We have already attempted to do so with one subject, the results were inconclusive as he was given to a human named Emil Narud. We never heard from the subject again. We cannot be certain that the cure took hold. Therefore, the only cure that we know works is purification by fire. It would be in your best interest to burn the human female as well. I can sense the infestation within her about to fully run its course. If you choose to resist us, we will meet in glorious combat.”

Everyone but Sweetie stared wide-eyed at Hanson, who gasped and fell to her knees. Hanson suspected that the infection might have been within her, but she hoped that that wasn’t the case.

Sweetie looked at Tychus. “Tychus, take Hanson to the lab, evacuate the other staff in there and lock the door. I don’t want her getting in or out until after the matter with Haven is resolved.”

Hanson was outraged that she was being treated like a sick person outside of a quarantine, but had no choice but to comply. Before she could speak, Sweetie continued, “I will deal with you once I get back from Haven.” With that, Hanson was carried off the bridge.

Before Sweetie and Raynor’s conversation with Selendis progressed, Lyra spoke up, “I’d like to propose a compromise for our cases. I doubt all of the colonial settlements are infected yet, we will contain the spread of the infection by preventing any attempts by the Zerg to infect the other settlements. Meanwhile, Selendis will burn off any excess infection that would be difficult for us to contain by purifying the largest sources of viral infection. There are three points that have fully transformed into hive clusters. We will leave you to use the Purifier on them.”

Sweetie was considering Lyra’s proposition. The plan would put the Protoss to work by assisting with the more problematic areas while giving the colonists time to round up whatever infested they could as test subjects while protecting the parts of the colony that weren’t infested. “That sounds like a wonderful plan, Lyra.” Said Pony beamed.

Selendis considered the proposition as well. However, she was unsure whether or not to entrust the planet to humans who might spread the infection again. “I would like to add a condition to my cooperation. I wish to leave a garrison on Haven to keep the infested separate from the others. My people are immune to the Zerg virus so there would be no risk to ourselves.”

“Your condition is accepted, Selendis,” Sweetie said.

With the accord made, the Raiders and Protoss sent troops and the Purifier down to the surface.

By the time the Raiders arrived, the nearest settlement had already succumbed to infestation. Sweetie noticed a large Zerg that was spewing contagion all over the settlement. The Overmind called it a Virophage.

The Raiders quickly set up their defenses while manufacturing as many Vikings and Wraiths as they could. Science Vessels were also constructed to assist the fighters and bathe the infested and Zerg in radioactive gas.

The fighters arrived at the infected settlement. The Wraiths opened fire on the air and ground enemies while the Vikings transformed into their assault mode and stormed the entire settlement in a hailstorm of bullets while taking care to avoid the Virophage’s contagion. The viral creature was relentlessly gunned down and spilled its contents all over the ground.

Sweetie and Lyra had little to do but watch the colonists since the mission called for fast response and the Vikings and Wraiths were the only ones who could respond to attempted infections.

The Protoss soon arrived and warped in a Nexus near the base. Selendis entrusted the Raiders with its care while the Purifier began slowly moving toward the first Zerg hive cluster just east of theirs.

While the Purifier was traveling, the Vikings were patrolling the settlements as the infection attempts were starting to become more frequent.

The Purifier made it to the first hive cluster and charged up its purification beam. In about a minute, the intense photon energies incinerated the Zerg and infested colony buildings.

The Zerg stepped up their attempts at spreading the infection by simultaneously attempting more than one settlement. The Vikings and Wraiths were forced to split up to cover both settlements. With their forces halved, the fighters had more difficulty dealing with the attempts. More Vikings were manufactured to compensate for the intensifying attacks.

The Purifier had crept along and arrived at the second Zerg hive cluster southeast of the first one. The Zerg were unable to get past the powerful shields that were protecting it. With the Nexus keeping its shields intact, there was little the Zerg could do but watch as the Purifier eradicated them and their hive cluster.

In response to the destruction of the second hive cluster, the Zerg sent stronger strains to protect the infection groups. They began sending large, flying Zerg with Broodlings hovering next to them. The Overmind called them Brood Lords. Round looking flyers that had numerous tentacles dangling from them accompanied the Brood Lords. They were called Corruptors. The two strains of Zerg were designed to handle most land and air threats respectively.

Thankfully, the number of Vikings that had been constructed were more than enough to deal with a few Brood Lords and Corruptors.

With only one hive cluster remaining, Sweetie and Lyra led a ground force to the entrance of the remaining source of infection. Sweetie took control of the Corruptors and pitted them against the Brood Lords and Mutalisks. Any Ultralisks that came calling were also controlled and driven to attack its fellow Zerg.

Once the Purifier finally arrived, Sweetie’s force quickly evacuated and watched from afar as the last of the infestation was obliterated.

Any infested colonists that remained were imprisoned in special holding pens for further study.

Sweetie honestly hoped that Hanson was not the only scientist helping these colonists because she had a feeling that she wouldn’t be in a helping mood once they got back. The colony would also need to get used to working with the Protoss.

Liberty: Sea of Flames

“Sir, ma’am, we have an issue in the lab,” said Matt. “We made sure that Hanson maintained communication with us from lab 01, but we lost communication with her within the last fifteen minutes. We believe the infestation has taken hold.”

Raynor put on his suit and Sweetie slung her rifle on her back. Sweetie told Lyra to stand by so that she could handle the situation herself. Raynor insisted that he come with her as backup. Unable to dissuade him, Sweetie had little choice but to acquiesce to Raynor’s request.

The duo made their way into the lab where Hanson was kept. Raynor cautiously walked around the lab. “Ariel? You in here?” he said.

Silence.

He opened a communication channel to Matt. “Matt, seal all access points.” The door behind him shut and locked.

With a sigh, Sweetie spoke, “Come on out, Ariel. The stalking thing is a little amusing but it’s time we had that talk.” She added as a thought, “Here’s hoping that lesson in exerting dominance pays off.”

~”If you do it like I instructed, she will retain some independence to the extent of being able to think for herself at the cost of being bound to you. If your newfound ambitions are to be realized, this will be good practice for the future.”~

“Talk to me? Or kill me?” said a distorted voice above the lab. Raynor and Sweetie looked up to see the now grotesque form of Dr. Ariel Hanson. “Will you enjoy it? Killing me like you killed my children?”

While the upper half of her head still looked human, the rest of her body was mutated by the Zerg virus. Her mouth was a huge gaping hole with a few sharp teeth in the middle. Her jaw was between two tendrils that ended in sharp points. Her body had bloated and was reinforced with chitin while her arms and feet ended in razor-sharp claws. Most of her body was still covered in her lab coat.

“Oh God, not you too!” Raynor said.

Sweetie rolled her eyes dramatically. “Get down here right now! Your colony is fine, we just contained the infection with the help of the Protoss. You still have your uninfected people and your infested test subjects.”

“And why should I believe you?”

With a dramatic sigh, Sweetie stared into Hanson’s eyes. Sweetie’s eyes glowed light blue for a few moments before Hanson’s eyes began glowing the same color.

Hanson jumped down onto the lab floor and took up a passive stance. Sweetie walked up to Hanson and put a hand on her head. “Have you calmed down?” Sweetie asked. Hanson nodded. Sweetie turned her head and looked at Raynor. “Jim, please leave us. I can handle things from here.”

Raynor was confused about the turn of events. He was ready to shoot Hanson in the head and end her miserable existence. And somehow, Sweetie had calmed her down. Also, Hanson’s eyes were glowing yellow before; the same glow in Kerrigan’s eyes, now they were glowing light blue; the same color as the aura that Sweetie uses to levitate objects. One thing was certain, he needed to get to the bottom of Sweetie’s ability to control Zerg and the infested.

Raynor decided to leave Sweetie alone with Hanson. After requesting for Matt to unseal the doors, he walked out of the lab.

With Raynor gone, Sweetie decided to tell her the unfortunate facts. “You know that with the way you are now, you can’t return to your colony.”

Hanson looked at her clawed hands and breathed a sad sigh. She knew that she would not be able to go back to the way things were now that she was infested. The strangest thing about her being infested, however, was that unlike the colonists who acted like they were compelled to attack anyone who wasn’t Zerg, she didn’t feel any of those compulsions. The only unusual thing that she noticed in her mind was an overwhelming desire to obey whatever command Sweetie Drops gave her.

On the other hand, she also felt a sort of reassurance; something that, although she received little of it during her childhood, felt similar to a mother’s support. She wasn’t really sure how to feel about such a feeling.

Sweetie continued, “I did what I could to allow you to keep some independence to where you can think for yourself and your intellect was unaffected. If you want to continue your research, you would have to use whatever facilities you find here.

“I will do my best to assure Raynor and the crew that you’re not a threat, but you will have to be confined here for your safety and their peace of mind. If you need materials, I’ll do my best to get them to you.”

“I suppose I have little choice now,” Hanson said.

“Well, don’t lose hope yet. There might be a way to reverse the infestation if we gather the entire collection of artifact fragments,” Sweetie said.

“How do you know about what the artifacts can do?”

“Don’t spread this around to anyone. I’d rather not have this knowledge spread to the wrong people.” Sweetie took a deep breath. “The reason I have knowledge of Zerg xenobiology is because the source of that info comes from a parasite in my head that contains the consciousness of the first Overmind. Just before it was destroyed, it infected me with a small piece of itself and I have been able to telepathically communicate with it ever since.”

Hanson’s eyes became like dinner plates. While she had hoped that she was telling the truth, because that would mean that Sweetie has access to thousands of years of ancient knowledge, she also maintained a degree of skepticism. It didn’t take long before that skepticism started to wear away.

~”Congratulations are in order for converting your first intelligent minion.”~

“I’d rather not refer to her as such.”

Hanson’s eyes couldn’t get any wider. “Did I just hear a telepathic message from you? And, where did that other voice come from?”

Sweetie chuckled. “You most likely heard the voice of the Overmind. I guess since you’re connected to me, it stands to reason that the Overmind would be a part of that connection.”

“I have so many questions right now. I just wish we had all the time in the world for you to answer them.”

“I’ll be back soon. I’m sure Jim and Tychus are getting antsy for another mission.” Sweetie left the lab before letting Matt know that she was done talking to her. Matt sealed the lab soon after.

After a brief visit to the armory, and Swann’s mention of the improvements he made to the new AH/G-24 Banshee Tactical-Strike Aircrafts, Sweetie went to the bridge to discuss the next mission. Tychus was the one to speak first.

“Moebius’ve got themselves set up again since the Zerg chased ‘em outta their old place. They say they’ve worked out where to find another artifact, lovely little place called Typhon.

Tosh walked into the room and spoke with a slight tone of impatience, “There you are, Sweetie. When are you gonna seal the deal and assist me with my task?”

Sweetie took a moment to consider the priorities and decided that it was about time to finish her deal with him. “If it’s alright with you, we’re going to Typhon first to pick up the next artifact. Once we’re done there, your request will be done next.”

Tosh stared at Sweetie for a full minute. “How do I know you’re not just stalling?”

Sweetie sighed and rolled her eyes. “I can give you a kind of promise that we equestrians consider sacred if you want some assurance.” Tosh continued to stare as if expecting her to go on.

“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” Sweetie said, going through the motions.

Everyone looked at her as if she had just mutated. “What was that?” Tosh asked.

“It’s called a Pinkie Promise. Trust me, anyone who makes one of those must keep it. The last time someone broke a Pinkie Promise, a certain Pony me and Lyra know broke the laws of space and time to severely injure them.”

A hatch underneath the star map opened and the head of a pink Pony with blue eyes and a curly, dark pink mane popped out of the hatch and narrowed her eyes at Sweetie before slowly slinking back into the hatch.

No words were said for the next few minutes before Sweetie spoke, “Don’t ask, trust me.”

Upon arrival at Typhon, the Hyperion’s sensors were getting unusual readings from Typhon’s star. The energy output spiked about five hundred percent. Matt explained that this happens eventually to stars that have a high energy output. At some point in their life cycle, the star will greatly increase its output and burst in the form of a supernova.

While the star was preparing for its explosive presentation, Typhon was being bombarded by waves of fire.

Sadly, the Tal’darim , in their fanaticism, were willing to burn on Typhon to guard the artifact.

Since their timetable just got moved up, Sweetie and Lyra quickly made for the transports to Typhon to prepare for the fast-paced operation.

A small group of Banshees cleared an area to establish a quick base. As everything was established, the star was beginning to rise over the horizon and a long wall of fire was encroaching on their location.

Nyon sent the Hyperion a transmission, <”We anticipated your arrival! Now you will pay for desecrating our holy relics!”>

“Are you insane, Nyon?! This planet is burning and your Tal’darim are pointlessly giving their lives to the fire for the artifact? Where’s your common sense?! If you had any, you would be fleeing the planet with the artifact!” Lyra ranted.

“My people will gladly give our lives to ensure that our holy relics do not fall in your hands.”

Lyra was about to respond when Sweetie put a hand on her shoulder. “Let it go, Lyra. When we finally do confront this guy, I’ll let you deal with him.”

Calming herself, Lyra led a group of ground troops against a nearby Tal’darim base. Lyra quickly tore through the defenders while Banshees bombed the Protoss from the skies.

With the burning dawn near, the mobile buildings relocated themselves into the smoldering remains of the enemy base.

While the Tal’darim continue to focus on the Raiders while throwing their own lives away, Sweetie defended the base by locking down the mechanical Protoss that attacked them, leaving them helpless to attacks.

Lyra helped move the attack group toward the artifact vault with Banshees and Vikings providing air support. Lyra assisted by unleashing powerful psionic blasts that obliterated Photon Cannons. She also channeled the Dark Archon power and took control of enemy Carriers.

With the Tal’darim distracted by the air power brought against them, Lyra secretly cut her way into the artifact vault. When the Protoss discovered that Lyra had forced open the door, they scrambled to try to take out the Pony Templar. Their skills and power were unable to compete against her. The defenders were in awe of her power as they faded away.

An extraction team quickly entered the vault and claimed the artifact and took it back to the Hyperion. With the star’s rays near, everyone evacuated the planet and the system in time to avoid the cataclysmic destruction wrought by the star.

Liberty: Prison Break

After narrowly escaping the supernova energies from the Typhon system, the Hyperion received a transmission from the Moebius Foundation. They wished to rendezvous at a set of coordinates that were transmitted to the Hyperion.

Since the location was on the way to Folsom Prison, they agreed to the meeting.

Once the Hyperion had arrived at the location, the crew of the Hyperion nervously waited for the arrival of the Moebius ships.

It wasn’t long before ships arrived in the area, including the current flagship of the Dominion fleet, the Bucephalus. Once alerted to the presence of Mengsk’s ship, Raynor got up to prepare for the final confrontation that he assumed was now.

Matt told Raynor that their shields were still down, but Raynor took it as an invitation to head over to the Bucephalus and cause havoc. Matt pleaded with Raynor to reconsider his actions, but he simply ignored him.

Sweetie was not going to let Raynor make an ass of himself in case Arcturus was not aboard, so she turned to Lyra, “If you would…”

Lyra bound Raynor in a Maelstrom. Raynor struggled to get free but couldn’t. Sweetie had Matt seal the access points from the bridge.

Once the Maelstrom wore off, Raynor growled at Sweetie, “What the hell are you doin’?! That’s Arcturus’ flagship! This is the best chance we could have hoped to bring him down!”

Sweetie took a deep breath. “Or, this would be the perfect chance to make an ass of yourself in the event that Arcturus is not on board. Do you know how dangerous it is to make blind assumptions around here? Lives could be needlessly lost because you assumed Arcturus was on board.

“Also, listen to Matt for once and just heed his advice. At least he keeps a level head unlike you. Now, since the Bucephalus has neither raised their shields nor powered up their weapons, I can guess that they are intending diplomacy.” Sweetie turned to Matt, “Matt, open a channel. Let’s see who’s leading this group.”

The Bucephalus answered their hail. On the video screen appeared a young man with blond hair and grey eyes. He was wearing a pair of ornate pauldrons, a red cape, a dark grey dress uniform with gold bordering. He wore a black and gold sash that had a few medals pinned to it.

“Greetings, Raynor’s Raiders. I am Crown Prince Valerian Mengsk. And yes, I am Emperor Arcturus’ son. I own the Moebius Foundation and through them, I own you as well.”

“I wouldn’t word it that way if I were you,” Sweetie warned. “If you’re aiming to be the next Emperor, you really need to work on your diplomacy.”

Valerian was surprised not only by Sweetie’s appearance, but the subtle warning she gave him. After a moment of regaining his composure, he continued, “I shall take your advice to heart. At any rate, I have heard about your exploits, Jim Raynor, Sweetie Drops and Lyra, but I did not come here to recall your actions. I suspect that you know what the artifacts are capable of?”

“Yes, I know they are parts of a single device. It’s not hard to imagine when you take the time to look at them. Based on what I imagine the final appearance will be, we only need one more piece to complete the device. Once we do, I imagine that you want to lead an expedition to Char to take down the Queen of Blades using the completed artifact to undo her infestation. Am I wrong so far?”

Once again Valerian was taken aback by Sweetie’s response. She had mostly revealed everything that he thought that only he and the Moebius Foundation knew about the artifact. “Uhh...that’s what we figured in theory anyway,” he said with whatever composure he had left. “Since you still need a powerful force to infiltrate Kerrigan’s primary hive cluster, I would like to enlist your aid in the invasion.”

Raynor interrupted the conversation, “Tell me, Junior, what’s your stake in all this? And no talkin’ around it.”

Valerian was actually glad that Raynor spoke as he had, because he could use the opportunity to regain the momentum of the conversation. To answer Raynor’s question, he spoke frankly, “I wish to prove that I am ready for the throne; that I am a better man than my father. What better way than to reform the biggest mass murderer in the sector?”

“So we’re just cogs in your little plan?”

“If it gets you what you want? Does it matter?”

Raynor simply grumbled. “I guess not...”

Matt walked up to Sweetie and whispered to her, “Please tell me you’re not seriously considering this deal.”

Sweetie took a deep breath, the usual sign of a lecture. “Please remember that we’re fighting for a better tomorrow. As things are now, Kerrigan stands as the biggest obstacle in front of us. Even if we miraculously depose Arcturus, it’s merely a pyrrhic victory until the Zerg threat is diminished.

“I might not like the Dominion, but I know when to be realistic. We might have upgraded our tech but our numbers are still nowhere near enough to take down Mengsk or Kerrigan. We are an army of volunteers and if we want to actually make a difference instead of simply annoying Arcturus for years without landing a crippling blow, we need to take part in high risk and high reward operations every now and then.

“Also, I know for a fact that there is an even bigger threat over the horizon. This operation is not only to save Kerrigan from being manipulated by said threat, but also to bring her to our side. We need the Zerg to be facing the bigger threat.

“Also, if we have the Zerg supporting us, overthrowing Arcturus may actually be doable. Even if we broadcast Arcturus’ war crimes, we would only damage his image, but it won’t remove him from power. We need a coup and hope that Valerian is as legit as he claims.” Sweetie finally finished.

“That sounds like an ideal situation, but how do you know that Kerrigan would even help us?” Matt asked.

Sweetie smirked, “Because she already has the motivation to kill Arcturus. We simply need to support her when the time comes. I just need to make sure she goes after the true threat once Arcturus’ reign has ended.”

Matt considered what Sweetie said for a few minutes before deciding, “Alright, I’ll tell the crew that we are entering a temporary alliance with Valerian in order to eliminate the Zerg threat to humanity before we focus all of our energies on taking down Mengsk. They should buy that at least.”

“Good, we need everyone on board for this if this is going to happen. For now, set course for New Folsom. I have a promise to fulfill.

The transmission alarm went off when they neared New Folsom, the prison planet. The transmission was allowed to go through.

The video displayed a woman with blond hair and green eyes and wearing the latest in Dominion Ghost gear.

<“Well, well - the infamous Jim Raynor and Ponies. My name is Nova. We should talk.”>

“Now what would one of Mengsk’s pet Ghosts have to say to me?” Raynor asked.

<“Tosh is lying to you.”>

Tosh sent his own transmission. <”We Spectres are the future! You just couldn’t handle it, little girl.”>

<”Every Ghost that became a Spectre has gone on a psychotic killing spree. The ones I’ve captured are held in New Folsom.”>

Sweetie decided to interrupt the argument. “I’m gonna have to stop you there, Nova. I’ve been exposed to the same drugs and chemicals that every other Spectre were exposed to and I have not had any desire to randomly kill people. Lyra even built up a tolerance to Terrazine during her time on a Protoss world that was lousy with the stuff. If you didn’t know that Jorium can counter the psychotic effects of Terrazine, then your intelligence network is quite fallible. If you did, then you’re a liar. Either way, your argument has lost its credibility.”

Nova tried to argue against Sweetie but could not find one. Even if she was a different race, she knew that Protoss were affected by Terrazine the same way as humans. Without an argument, Nova growled at Sweetie and ended the transmission.

<”Uploading New Folsom data now.”> Tosh said.

Raynor was impressed with the high security but realized that they likely wouldn’t be like that unless they received a tip, likely from Nova. “We’ll need an army to break into that place.”

<”Even an army couldn’t get you in there. But a pair of Spectres could in the right places.”>
Sweetie gave a wicked smirk as Tosh said that.

“Then our progress is all up to you, Tosh. I’ll push my boys as hard as I can, but they’re gonna need your help to gain ground. You both ready?”

“I’ve been waitin’ a long time for this. Let’s do this!” Tosh said.

“You should know me well enough by now, Jim,” Sweetie said.

Tosh, Sweetie and Lyra were deployed just outside the front gates of the prison. A trio of guards were the first obstacle. Each took one guard. A group of guards were further ahead and had their heads blown up by a pair of Mindblasts.

A group of guards surrounded a Missile Turret. Sweetie and Tosh used the same method to deal with the guards while Lyra sliced up the turret.

The next obstacle had a Missile Turret guarded by Marines and a Siege Tank. Lyra Mind Controlled the tank while the Spectres took advantage of the chaos to deal with the guards and turret.

Raynor began moving his troops into the prison complex while the Dominion sent guards to push back the Raiders.

The trio began tearing away at the next obstacle which had some tough defenses. Sweetie and Tosh took out a Bunker that was within range of their rifles but outside the detection range of the Missile Turrets. Lyra eliminated attack waves from the prison guards as they came. Tosh deployed a psionic shield to protect him while he shot up a Missile turret. The Spectres systematically dismantled the defenses to allow the Raiders to move in to support them. Once the last of the area’s defenses fell, Raynor established a forward position over the ruins.

A Ghost was waiting in ambush and used an EMP to drain the trio’s psychic power. Sweetie and Lyra ended up feeling mentally drained. However, the EMP did not affect the Ponies’ magic. Lyra grabbed the Ghost in her telekinesis and dropped him into the lava below.

Tosh suggested stealing a little life from their allies to restore their energy. Although Sweetie was against such a notion, some of the Marines volunteered to have their life force taken since they believed that Medics could somehow heal that. In the end, Sweetie decided to let her mental energy restore itself naturally while focusing more on the magic that she had been neglecting lately.

The next defenses required taking a small passage around to deal with the defenses from behind. Since the passage was also within a turret’s detection range, with Siege Tanks nearby, Tosh deployed his shield and dealt with the tanks from behind. Lyra fired a powerful magical laser from her horn that destroyed the turret protecting the two Bunkers. Lyra and Sweetie each cleared a Bunker.

Tosh decided to enter the nearby cell block while Lyra and Sweetie moved forward. Lyra took control of the Siege Tanks and made them blast at the defenses from within. The Raiders took advantage of the chaos and pushed into the enemy position. The Raiders soon overwhelmed the guards in the area and established another forward position.

Tosh entered the second cell block and left Sweetie and Lyra advancing on the prison once again. Raynor informed the duo that he had some Nukes ready for them to use. Sweetie used them to blow away large clusters of guards. Raven patrols were locked down to prevent them from finding her. The Raiders’ attacks were bolstered with Diamondbacks and Siege Tanks.

Knowing that they couldn’t stop the Raiders anymore, the guards retreated from the prison.

The prisoners somehow knew that they were gonna be freed and exited from the elevator to the surface, greeted by Tosh and the Raiders.

Only one question remains: will the prisoners be worth the effort it took to bust them out?

Liberty: Revealing the Truth

Raynor observed the prison planet, New Folsom, from the bridge of the Hyperion and admired the work that his boys had performed this day.

“Fifty years and no one’s ever escaped from New Folsom...but we broke it open in an afternoon,” he said.

“I can hardly believe we pulled it off,” Matt said.

Tosh, who had maintained his Cloaking and Sweetie had been ignoring his presence until now, reappeared in front of everyone else while playing with his butterfly knife. “You guys did good. Now me and my Spectres’ll finish the job, we’ll kill Mengsk and burn his Dominion to da ground.”

“Maybe nothing that extreme, Tosh,” Sweetie interjected. “Humanity still needs leadership; a reliable banner to get behind. Arcturus needs to be removed from power, one way or another. But, humanity still needs the Dominion, we just need to find the right leader to replace him once Arcturus is gone.”

“Oh? And who would you suggest?” Tosh asked.

“Preferably someone with ideals to inspire the people, but not naive enough to believe that pacifism can solve every problem. On the other hand, not corrupted by vengeance and megalomania. One who values the lives of their people without needlessly sacrificing them, but understands that not all casualties can be prevented. And one who is charismatic for the people to rally to; popular and willing to stand up to the rest of the governing structure if it means protecting the people.”

Tosh scoffed, “And you think Mengsk’s boy fits the bill?”

“I did not say that. I was talking about the kind of person the people need to realize the dream for a better tomorrow. If Valerian does indeed fit the description, then so be it. If he truly is the man who the people need, I can only hope that you and your Spectres will support his bid for the throne when the time comes.”

“We shall see…” Tosh reactivated his Cloaking and Sweetie watched him walk out of the bridge.

After having a drink at the cantina and listening to the latest news talking about the recent prison break and the usual biased context that Donny uses, Sweetie went to the armory to see Swann.

“Hey ranger, how’s it goin’? Your pal, Tosh gave me the data to build more Spectre gear. I even added the Nyx Cloaking Module while Tosh taught them how to use that crazy Psionic Lash attack of theirs.

“But that’s not important. What is important is that I finally figured out the proper size to firepower ratio to bring out the full potential of the Odin model,” he said victoriously. Swann adjusted the terminal to bring up a display of what appeared to be the Odin. “I call it the Thor. It’s smaller than the Odin but a damn lot more practical than that showpiece and is just small enough to be produced from a Factory. Their 330mm Cannons are almost as devastating as Nukes and they are equipped with a module that allows them to repair themselves to full working condition should they take too much damage.”

“If they’re at least a significant fraction as powerful as the Odin, that would be great. Especially since we are planning on attacking Augustgrad to broadcast Mengsk’s war crimes soon,” Sweetie said.

“Heh, glad to know we’re still stickin’ it to ‘em despite this little alliance we got goin’ with Scooter.”

“Scooter?”

“It’s the nickname I came up with for the kid.”

“Ah.” Sweetie said, before another thought came to mind. “Where do you come up with the names for these machines anyway?”

“Oh, right...you don’t know anything about our mythology. You guys have gods or some kinda religion?”

“No, my people don’t have a religion. The closest thing we have to goddesses are the princesses. And they raise and lower our sun and moon every day.”

“What? Like figuratively?”

“No, literally.”

Swann’s eyes bulged. “Didn’t realize there were powers in the universe that could do something that impressive.” He leaned against the railing to try and process what he just heard.

Sweetie waited a few minutes for Swann to recover. When he didn’t, she left Swann to his thoughts and returned to the bridge.

After being everywhere on the ship, Sweetie noticed that Tychus was missing. On the bridge, Sweetie asked where Tychus was.

“Actually, since we were planning to hit Korhal I called in every favor I had to get the Odin into Augustgrad, with Tychus inside. Thankfully, our raid on the Valhalla facility hasn’t even been reported yet. The Dominion have no idea we stole the Odin,” Matt said.

“Seriously? We went to Haven, Typhon, and New Folsom since we stole the Odin and they still haven’t reported anything?”

“Truth be told, I’ve had a series of fake transmissions being sent to Korhal to delay any investigations. Good thing we’re doing this now because I wasn’t sure they would have bought it much longer.”

“I see...So, they’re still expecting to film at the UNN studio later today?”

“That’s right -- and we won’t disappoint them. Seeing as he’s the only one with experience, Tychus will pilot the Odin and hit the studio guards with a surprise attack. They’ll be confused for several minutes - and won’t even know who to attack at first.”

Sweetie facepalmed, “Tychus in a populated area driving a hulking battle machine of death and destruction...you see where I’m going with this?”

Matt thought about it for a moment before coming to the same conclusion as Sweetie before mimicking her facepalm. “I just set Tychus loose in a city where he’s going to cause untold collateral damage to both Dominion and civilian alike, didn’t I?”

“Yes, you did. And you know that’s gonna happen if we both know Tychus as well as we think we do at this point.”

“I’m in the Dominion security network. Bringing up their locations now.” Matt brought up a display of each Dominion base in the area that were guarding one of the UNN broadcast towers. Each location was sent to Tychus.

The Odin was being paraded around the city of Augustgrad while being escorted by a number of Marines and Hellions. During this time, Tychus was very eager to cause a lot of collateral damage. Every Marine was just waiting to be squished. Every Hellion was waiting to be stomped on. Every statue of Mengsk was waiting to be leveled. He was not going to let anything get in the way of his fun.

The Odin was brought before a podium waiting for the representative to begin his speech. Tychus was growing impatient.

Suddenly, he heard Raynor on the radio. <”Alright, Tychus - do your thing.”>

“Thought you’d never ask.”

With that, the Odin turned around and started firing its cannons into the Dominion security crowd. Everyone began to panic as the Odin began its rampage. The Dominion foolishly clumped together and were easy prey for the Odin’s cannons.

Tychus moved into the perimeter of the broadcast tower number two and tore into its Command Center and the SCVs before bombarding the Factories with the dorsal cannons. Once all of the Factories were leveled, Tychus left the area alone and went toward tower number one.

On the way, some unfortunate civilians who were mesmerized by the Odin ended up getting squished by the massive mech. A few vehicles and streetlights were also caught in the Odin’s path of destruction.

Tychus employed the same strategy at the tower one perimeter as tower two. By this time, Matt alerted Tychus that an alert had gone out and the Dominion would soon lock him out of their systems. Tychus was not worried at all. Once again, he took out the area’s Command Center then proceeded to bombard the Starports with the dosal cannons. By the time Tychus had finished destroying the Starports, his rampage had to come to an end because the Dominion was ready to counterattack.

Tychus had quickly retreated to the park where Raynor and the Ponies had set up a base to prepare to fight off the Dominion and get a force together to take control of the broadcast towers.

Tychus’ rampage had crippled two of the three bases protecting the broadcast towers. Sweetie decided to make things worse for the Dominion by moving against a Dominion mining base by herself. Moving into range of the mining base northwest of the park, Sweetie unloaded all of the Dominion’s nuclear silos and completely blew the small base away.

Tychus did similar against an even smaller mining base east of the park.

As he moved to broadcast tower three, Tychus noticed something that caught his attention. For some reason he felt tempted to blast a lone Science Facility across a bridge. Giving in to his destructive desires, Tychus moved across the bridge and blasted the building apart before moving against the perimeter of tower three.

Matt was curious about what Tychus had just blown up and sent Lyra to investigate the ruined Science facility. Lyra took a look around the building and didn’t find much, before she left, she noticed some documents on the ground that were mostly intact. She picked up the documents and returned to the park.

While Sweetie and Tychus were further weakening the Dominion defenses in their own way, Raynor had a team ready to make their way to the towers. The group was composed of a pair of Thors and a few Goliaths and Siege Tanks. To deal with the remaining aerial forces near tower one, Vikings and Wraiths accompanied the ground forces. Lyra also joined the group.

Any remaining ships in the base were quickly shot down before the group moved into close proximity to tower one. Once the upload began, General Warfield called in Strike Team Alpha to repel the rebels. Lyra quickly carved up any ground troops and vehicles while the Goliaths and fighter ships shot down any Dominion ships that got in their way.

The first broadcast was soon uploaded and Raynor was confident that Arcturus was not going to be able to wriggle out of the political scandal that would soon be made known to the public.

Arcturus saw the broadcast and ordered General Warfield to eliminate the rebels.

Sweetie’s nuclear rampage had already cleaned up the last of the Dominion base near tower two. It was only a matter of the troops occupying the tower. Warfield sent Strike Team Bravo to drive the Raiders away, but the result was the same as tower one.

Tower three was the same as the last two. The Odin’s destructive rampage was more evident around tower three. Miraculously, the civilians had the common sense to get off the streets before the Odin could stomp them so the collateral damage was minor.

Tychus and Sweetie assisted with the occupation of tower three and repelling Strike Team Charlie. Dominion security was helpless to stop the Raiders from broadcasting Arcturus’ scandalous words all across Dominion space.

Before the Raiders evacuated, Sweetie ordered Tychus to scrap the Odin. With a pout, Tychus activated the Odin’s self-destruct and ejected before he was caught in the blast. To make sure there was nothing to salvage, Sweetie had Lyra slash apart any pieces that looked intact or important before moving away and allowing Sweetie to drop her last nuke on the Odin’s rubble.

Once reasonably certain that Arcturus couldn’t use the Odin against them in the future, especially since lugging that titanic machine around would have been a pain and then some, the Raiders escaped Korhal while furious citizens were beginning to riot on the streets.

Liberty: The Terrifying Truth

The Raiders managed to escape Korhal and shake off any pursuers. With the immediate danger past, the Raiders breathed a sigh of relief.

Raynor, Sweetie and Lyra headed to the cantina to watch the media circus they had created. All of the known news stations, including one that was anchored by their old acquaintance, Michael Liberty, were all discussing the headlines of the truth about Emperor Mengsk.

With his crimes and intentions revealed to the public, the media was preying on the Emperor. Many of the fringe colonies have declared their lack of faith in Mengsk as a ruler. Even Valerian was called into question about his father’s crimes.

During a press conference with the Emperor, Arcturus attempted to deny the allegations against him. Kate Lockwell, however ensured that any claim of denial was seen as nothing more than a lie when she played the infamous recording in the middle of the conference room. Angrily, Arcturus ended the interview right at that moment.

Even Donny Vermillion was completely disillusioned when he found out the brother he lost on Tarsonis was dead because of Arcturus. Kate took over the broadcast as Donny was having a mental breakdown, mentioning the riots and a statement from Arcturus that resulted in being shouted down by protestors and was forced to retreat to his palace.

In an attempt at damage control, Dominion Security issued a gag order on all media to keep them quiet about the shocking revelations against Arcturus.

After having their fill of Mengsk’s suffering from the media, Raynor, Sweetie and Lyra returned to the bridge because they needed to discuss what they found.

Reading the classified documents they recovered from the ruins of a Science Facility, they discovered the location of an old bio-weapons lab orbiting Castanar and plans to terminate the employees who worked there in the sense of killing everyone who worked there.

There was only one kind of bio-weapon that Terrans could be working with that Sweetie knew about. More suspicious would be the termination of the employees to suggest that they didn’t want any knowledge within the facility getting out.

Even more suspicious was that the documents were in a Dominion Science facility on Korhal. Either Narud was operating right under Arcturus’ nose or the Emperor was complicit in the Xel’naga’s Hybrid plan.

“Somethin’ on you mind?” Raynor asked, breaking Sweetie out of her thoughts.

“Just a hunch...if I’m right, there is likely something dangerous in that lab.”

“Guess we’ll find out. Matt set a course for Castanar.”

“So what’s your hunch on this death-lab?” Raynor asked.

“We may be looking at a Protoss and Zerg genetic research facility made for the purpose of breeding Hybrids like the one Lyra saw on Slayn,” Sweetie said.

“You mean like the one Zeratul saw on Zhakuul?”

“Most likely.”

“Aw, hell. Best course would be to just blow the place up and be done with it, but I wanna make sure your hunch is right. Wouldn’t look good on us if we blew up a bunch of innocent scientists. You, me and Lyra are headin’ down there with a team to look into this possible Hybrid breeding lab.”

Raynor’s dropship moved over an unsecured platform near the entrance. Matt mentioned that the facility cannot be scanned to find what was in there and told everyone to be careful.

“Hey, careful’s my middle name,” Raynor said.

Matt scoffed, “I thought it was Eugene.”

Raynor rolled his eyes, “Shut it, Matt...and neither of you say one word about it,” he said to the giggling mares. “Alright, stay frosty.”

Unsurprisingly, the entrance was sealed. Raynor planted a breaching charge to blow a hole into the door.

Once inside, the party was greeted by a group of Marines and a Firebat. Lyra bound them in a Maelstrom and let the others deal with the squad. A Perdition Turret appeared from the floor but Sweetie was ready with a Lockdown while Lyra slashed the turret in two.

A security terminal in the room was protected with a passcode which told Sweetie that these guys actually knew what they were doing. Thankfully, the codes provided by the documents allowed them access to the terminal and the security cameras. The codes also allowed them access to the Autogun Turrets in the next room that had a significant number of Marines and Firebats. The hack allowed access to one set of turrets. Sweetie chose the set near the Marines because that would force the Firebats to take more time to start their attack. Sweetie found a way to access the other set through the hacking skills she gained over the years and accessed the other set of Turrets. The guards stood no chance against the turrets and the Raiders that charged into the room.

The next room held a few containers that held Hybrid in development. Taking no chances, Sweetie and Lyra blasted and slashed the infant Hybrid.

Some guards found out that the rebels were trapped in the first lab and sealed the door before releasing the specimens. Sweetie took control of the specimens and Raynor used a breaching charge on the locked door.

Before the ‘clever’ guards could figure out what happened, they were met with many sharp claws and teeth.

Raynor found a small weapons cache that contained a few experimental grenades. He took them with him in case they would be useful later. A bunch of Marines were grouped together and were the perfect target for one of Raynor’s grenades.

Another group was spread to minimize casualties from grenades, though they appeared to have barely managed to wipe out the Zerglings they encountered. Instead, Lyra cut the group apart one by one. Panic on their faces, the Dominion guards could only wait for their demise.

Another security terminal awaited them. Using her hacking skills, Sweetie unleashed seventy Zerglings and five Ultralisks on the Dominion guards in the next room. The guards met an ugly end. Taking control of the feral Zerg, Sweetie had them on standby for the time being.

Discovering more Hybrid infants in the next lab, Sweetie had the Ultralisks smash the dormant creatures within the containers. Matt mentioned a fusion reactor that could destroy the facility if broken.

Raynor discovered a sealed door and blew it open, finding a cache of experimental plasma rounds. Taking them with him, the group proceeded down the only available path.

Their next obstacle featured an upgraded Viking and Siege Tank. Raynor tested the plasma rounds against the souped up vehicles and was pleased with the results.

The cargo bay ahead held a number of large vehicles that would be dangerous to take head on. Instead, Sweetie unleashed the Zerg she was controlling against the cargo bay vehicles. The Zerg quickly overwhelmed the Dominion in the area and tore through the Thor at the end.

Sweetie was not going to be the one to tell Swann that his concept on the Thor was not original.

A terminal at the end of the room revealed some heavy defenses and a captured Brutalisk. Raynor requested reinforcements in the form of Marauders to help him out.

Breaching the door, the group attacked the Marines, turrets and Firebats while Sweetie sniped the Ghosts in the head.

When the room was cleared, a tough decision was in front of them. However, Sweetie had a different plan in mind and simply released the Brutalisk contained in the room and took control of the beast.

After breaching the next door to the room that contained a fully-grown Hybrid, the Brutalisk went on a rampage and killed the Dominion in the room. The creature then proceeded to smash the fusion reactor at the far end of the room.

The destruction of the reactor sent a shockwave throughout the entire facility that caused debris to rain on the entire facility. Thankfully, the room they were in was sturdy enough to withstand the blast.

Without the reactor, the systems that were keeping the Hybrid asleep stopped functioning and the monster broke free of its cell.

Sweetie tried sending the Brutalisk to attack the Hybrid while Raynor and the others worked on clearing debris so they could make their desperate bid for an exit somewhere. A container of plasma rounds were dislodged from somewhere which were picked up. Soon, Sweetie could no longer feel the Brutalisk’s presence as it had been absorbed by the Hybrid.

A few feral Zerg ahead bolstered their numbers a little. Chaos was the theme in the facility as escaped Zealots engaged with Dominion forces and they were not friendly.

Beyond one group of enemies was a device that was of unknown design. Raynor read the label that said ‘Chrono Rift’. Lyra, who had knowledge of Protoss technology figured that it could be used to slow down time in an area. While the Hybrid appeared to be vigorous, powerful and well armored, as well as its presence giving the Ponies headaches, the device could be used to slow down the monster.

Sweetie found some more Zerg specimens to control before they saw the Hybrid smashing its way through the rubble before it. Sweetie sent the Zerg to slow it down before everyone ran away as fast as they could.

Finding more ammo along the way, as well as sending a programmable war robot to slow the Hybrid, the group ran through the facility as fast as they could.

Mysteriously, the Hybrid disappeared from sensors, meaning that it could appear anywhere.

One room had a number of cocoons that contained miniature Ultralisks called Pygalisks as well as an Ultralisk. Sweetie forced all cocoons in the area to hatch and took control of the Zerg in the area and brought them with her.

Suddenly, the Hybrid made its appearance again. Sweetie sent all Zerg she had under her command to slow the Hybrid. Raynor activated a chrono rift around the monster for good measure.

The last of the Dominion in the facility tried to get to the last transport away from the facility but Lyra cut them all down in one strike.

The way clear, everyone boarded the transport and performed an emergency liftoff before the Hybrid arrived. Without means of pursuit, the Hybrid screamed, worsening the Ponies’ headaches.

Raynor sent a transmission to Matt that they were borrowing a Dominion transport and to not shoot at them.

Despite the headaches, Sweetie and Lyra were relieved to be away from that monster but knew that they would have to face a lot more like that in the future.

Liberty: The Final Piece

Once everyone’s nerves calmed down and Raynor was ready to discuss what happened in the lab, the first person that he talked to was Sweetie. “So, that’s what we’re up against? These Protoss and Zerg Hybrids?”

“Yeah, apparently there are countless more labs like that one hidden everywhere,” Sweetie said. “Four years ago, me, Lyra and Zeratul found one on an uncharted moon. Turns out, Kerrigan’s former assistant, Samir Duran, wasn’t as loyal as she thought he was. He was apparently the one who had been leading the Hybrid project.”

“Duran? Haven’t heard anything from that guy in years. Wonder where he is now?”

Sweetie knew where Duran was, but it wasn’t time to reveal that info yet. A premature confrontation with him could lead to him going back into hiding and resurfacing as someone else. If he found out that she could sense his aura, he would take steps to either avoid her or find some way to conceal his aura. If she needed to confront him, she would have to be prepared to face him in combat.

Sweetie continued the discussion, “Nevermind him, you know that we found those classified documents on Korhal of all places. You know what this implies?

Raynor thought about it for a moment before coming to the same realization, “Mengsk! It’s always Mengsk! The end of the universe is coming and I should have known he’d be behind it!” he growled.

“I think he just wants the Hybrid to protect him. He never was one to think about the consequences as long as he got what he wanted in the end.”

“True, though now we know he’s more dangerous than ever.”

“We can deal with Mengsk later. For now we need to focus on saving Kerrigan.”

Sweetie asked Matt to contact Valerian. When the prince answers Matt’s call, his expression showed a combination of irritation, anticipation and resignation. Apparently, the media’s harassment of the prince had taken its toll on him. <“Greetings Commander Raynor, Lieutenant Sweetie Drops. In case you ask, I am not upset about my father’s crimes being leaked to the public. On the contrary, I had been prepared for that to happen. Though no one can truly be prepared for a media circus.”>

“For what it’s worth, I am sorry that you have to end up suffering because of your father. Anyway, has Moebius found the last artifact fragment?” Sweetie asked.

<“Thank you for your consideration. Yes, our mutual friends have found the last fragment. It’s on a derelict Xel’naga worldship in the Sigma Quadrant.”>

“Pretty far off the beaten path, junior,” Raynor said.

Valerian indicated the exact location of the fragment as well as the huge Tal’darim force protecting it. “The ship has several Rip-field Generators which disintegrate everything at a molecular level in a matter of moments. The Tal’darim are protected from the effects of the Rip-field generators thanks to their shields. Fortunately, our new Minotaur class Battlecruisers should be able to survive the fields long enough to destroy the generators.”

Tychus was concerned about the dangers of such an operation but Sweetie reassured him that they had their own secret weapon: Lyra.

“I have a different Idea on how we make our entrance to the ship. We are going to deploy Lyra via drop pod. The Tal’darim defenses at the back of the ship are minimal. She will be able to destroy the generator there and any resistance near it by herself. It also helps that she has energy shields to protect her from the rip-field. Once the generator is destroyed, we can set up our base and force our way through the rest of the Tal’darim defenses.”

Valerian was surprised by Sweetie’s strategy, he hadn’t anticipated that they had someone who could fight from within the rip-field without feeling the effects. “That actually sounds like a much better strategy, I had forgotten about Lyra’s Protoss abilities.”

Lyra piped up, “Remember, if Nyon shows up, he’s mine. I wanna take him down, Tal’darim style.” Sweetie giggled at that.

Matt had something to say next, “Swann mentioned buying some useful upgrades for the Battlecruisers. Also, Mira Han found something useful for you, Sweetie. Apparently her forces came across some experimental ammunition that can drain Protoss shields. After figuring out how they work, Swann was able to produce more of it.”

Sweetie was happy to finally have something very useful against Protoss, even if she really needed it for a long time. She was grateful to have it now.

After visiting Swann to grab the ammo, Sweetie prepared for deployment, deciding to assist Lyra with her preemptive strike after all.

A trio of Stalkers stood guard near a Rip-field Generator discussing their dwindling faith in Executor Nyon after his series of losses to a small Terran group. One still held faith in their Executor while the other two were considering deserting Nyon and either fleeing to the Daelaam or return to Slayn and try to find their place among their tribe.

Suddenly, a single drop pod landed near their location, just outside the rip-field. The three Stalkers stared at the lone pod. Since it appeared Terran-made, they assumed the enemy had arrived. Once the pod opened, however, there was no one inside. The Stalkers moved closer to investigate.

A pulse of energy suddenly hit them and left them deprived of their shields. Just as quickly, they each received an impact that sent them flying back into the rip-field. The trio soon found themselves breaking apart and quickly disintegrated.

Moving into the rip-field, one of the assailants deployed her warp and bane blades and slashed apart the generator, disabling the rip-field.

Sweetie decloaked and headed in Lyra’s direction. “Nice teamwork!” she said.

Lyra smiled and nodded, “You too!”

With the area clear, the Raiders began moving buildings into the area to set up their base.

The Raiders were quick to set up their defenses near a gap that the Tal’darim sent Warp Prisms over to drop enemies on the rebels. Thankfully, the Battlecruisers were able to quickly repel the attackers. Lyra was quick to eliminate any straggling enemies on the island.

A trio of Photon Cannons guarded the other side of the gap. A trio of Battlecruisers moved in and destroyed the cannons from afar with their Yamato Guns. After rallying a few more Battlecruisers, the small fleet set a direct course for the next Rip-field Generator.

A squadron of Scouts and Phoenixes moved in to defend the generator and were shot down one by one. The Battlecruisers unleashed everything they had and blew the generator to pieces.

With the generator down, a Medivac was called in to transport Sweetie and Lyra to the other side of the gap so they could support the capital ships by tearing apart the buildings. Sweetie used her EM shots to disable Tal’darim shields before using the rip-field to her advantage by kicking enemy soldiers into it.

A small group of imprisoned Dark Templar noticed the attacks against the Tal’darim and sensed Lyra’s presence. Regarding her as a sister, the Nerazim asked Lyra and the others to free them so they could exact their vengeance on the Tal’darim. Lyra shattered the prison and set the Dark Templar loose.

With the area cleared, the Raiders established a forward position near Sweetie’s location. At the same time, Reapers were deployed to scavenge the areas of the ship for resources to help move against the Tal’darim.

Noticing another Nerazim prison, Sweetie called in Dusk Wings to free their Protoss allies. She also called in Jackson’s Revenge to add their firepower to the Battlecruiser fleet. Hel’s Angels were also called in to support the Dusk Wings.

Taking advantage of their Shadow Walk ability, Lyra and the Dark Templar attacked any Tal’darim that gathered to attack them. Foolishly, Nyon only relied on stationary Photon Cannons to sense their locations.

With the help of Science Vessels and Bio-steel material used in the making of the Battlecruisers to allow the frames to regenerate, the growing fleet of capital ships were repaired and ready to attack the Tal’darim once again. The ships quickly engaged a nearby Rip-field generator.

In reaction to this, the artifact fragment was sealed in a vault built into the ship. Nyon finally appeared aboard a massive Protoss Mothership to defend the vault.

Using hit and run tactics, the fleet moved around and attacked a number of Pylons, Warp Prisms, Photon Cannons as well as another Rip-field Generator before fleeing from the Mothership. A number of Protoss ships were shot down in the process.

After a while of repairing the fleet, the ships attacked another Generator, leaving only the three near the vault.

With all means of detection and power lost in the main base, Lyra led the Dark Templar to clean up the ground clutter.

Luring the Mothership out of the rip-field with the Battlecruisers, Sweetie moved in and started firing numerous EM shots at the massive ship. The capital ships then fired a couple of Yamato Guns at the ship. Suffering major damage while temporarily disabling the fleet with a Vortex, the Mothership teleported back to the vault.

With its shields gone, the Mothership started disintegrating in the rip-field. Nyon realized that his ship was not going to last much longer and teleported himself to the surface of the worldship.

While the Raider fleet move away to deal with the rest of the Tal’darim fleet, Nyon watched the losing battle in front of him and mentally prepared himself for death.

That was when he heard the clopping of hooves against the stone surface of the ship. Nyon looked around and saw a familiar aquamarine-colored creature walking toward him unarmed. Before he could question her lack of armaments, a green blade appeared from her right palm and a red blade appeared from her left palm. She continued advancing toward him menacingly.

Nyon was enraged by the display he saw, “You dare wield the blade of my people against ME!?”

Lyra gave a wicked smirk. “I am here to finish you properly. Consider this an impromptu Rak’Shir. I am going to show you, once and for all, that you are unworthy in the eyes of the Xel'naga.”

Pushed beyond his patience, Nyon deployed his Bane Blades and charged at Lyra. After a brief clash of blades, Nyon attacked with a series of horizontal slashes and thrusts. Lyra dodged each attack like they were nothing. Nyon attempted to unleash a Psionic Storm on her with reckless abandon to his own safety. Lyra noticed that and countered with a Feedback which nearly sent him kneeling while grasping his head. Capitalizing on his brief distraction, Lyra unleashed a powerful psionic blast at the Executor before following up with a blast of magic from her horn which sent him flying back a moderate distance. Lyra chased after Nyon and unleashed a Psionic Shockwave that sent Nyon flying toward the edge of the world ship. In a desperate bid to regain footing, Nyon channeled all of his psionic power to force Lyra back, but the attack was too weak because he was still recovering from the Psychic Feedback. Lyra caught up with the Executor who tried to block her next attack. What surprised him was that she quickly turned around so her back faced Nyon before she jumped down on her hands and bucked him off the world ship with both hooves.

Without his plasma shields, Nyon succumbed to the vacuum of space.

The Battlecruisers blew open the vault and the Raiders collected the last of the artifact fragments.

Sweetie was quite enthralled with Lyra’s battle. She was very impressed with how far Lyra had come in four years. Though her drive to not be outdone by her marefriend had hardened her resolve to go through with her future plans.

She just hopes that Lyra will still love her after they come to fruition.

Liberty: Invasion Part 1

After returning to Dominion space from the Sigma Quadrant, the Raiders enjoyed some down time while Horner and Raynor had a talk with Valerian about setting up another rendezvous so the Moebius Foundation could take the five fragments of the mysterious Xel’naga artifact.

While everyone was kicking back, Tychus got hammered from excessive drinking at the cantina and started picking fights. Swann, who was trying to assure the other crew members that the alliance with Valerian was only temporary, ended up being the one that took his drunken aggression.

Before fists started flying, Raynor and Sweetie intervened, drawing the convict’s aggression. Tychus charged at the duo who jumped out of the way. Tychus had no control over his momentum and hit a wall.

Shaking off his daze, Tychus started throwing punches at Raynor and Sweetie. Sweetie easily dodged the convict’s strikes while Raynor jumped away and let Sweetie take some of the aggression before throwing bottles at Tychus’ unarmored body. A few glass shards ended up getting stuck in the convict’s skin.

Tychus pulled out all the shards he could before he tried fighting back by running to the bar and reaching for some of the good quality whiskey. “Don’t you dare throw the good stuff.” Raynor warned. Tychus wasn’t listening. He reached for a bottle of a popular and expensive whiskey and held the bottle over his head, intending to throw it at Raynor.

Sweetie reacted quickly and ran up to Tychus and kicked him hard enough to bury him in the metal wall. Tychus coughed up a little blood while having the feeling that one or more of his ribs were broken. The bottle flew out of his hand and Sweetie rushed to catch it. After saving the bottle and putting it back on the bar, Sweetie went to check on Tychus while Raynor helped the crew realize that saving lives was the purpose of Raynor’s Raiders.

Tychus was groaning in pain as Sweetie sighed and shook her head. “What are we gonna do with you?” she asked rhetorically.

Carefully, Sweetie extracted Tychus from the wall a little at a time. Once freed, Sweetie sent a telepathic message to Hanson to meet her at the medical lab then informed Horner through her communicator that Hanson was going to the medical lab to treat Tychus’ wounds. Horner made sure that Hanson’s path to the lab was clear of any crew members since Hanson’s grotesque condition was not common knowledge.

<”By the way, nice job with Tychus. I’ve been waiting for someone to kick his ass. Just wish you didn’t damage the ship doing it,”> Matt said.

“It’s not that bad,” Sweetie said.

After doing what she could to help Tychus, Sweetie sat at a table enjoying something some cheap whiskey when one of the crew members gave her a shot glass of the good whiskey saying that the drink was on him for helping with Tychus.

While this was happening, the news came on detailing the disappearance of Crown Prince Valerian and the ceremony he was supposed to attend involving the launch of the new Dominion Battlecruiser, the White Star.

On the bridge, Sweetie asked Raynor if Valerian and the Dominion fleet were ready to invade Char to which he replied that ‘they were ready when we were.’

Sweetie considered her readiness for the operation. She knew that once the invasion began, there was no going back until the job was done. All of Sweetie’s future plans depended on restoring Kerrigan’s sanity. Knowing that no other postponed task remained, there was only one thing for Sweetie to say.

“Let’s do it.”

Horace Warfield stared at the molten planet before him, knowing that one of the biggest battles of his long career was about to begin.

“Char. If Hell ever existed - this is it. Oceans of fire, tectonic storms and an atmosphere that’ll burn a man alive. But we’ve planned for all of that,” Warfield said.

Raynor, who was also looking at Char, turned and faced the General. “You can’t plan for the Zerg, General. They ain’t goin’ to fit in to your nice, clean time table.”

“I’ve led five separate invasions against the swarm. I held the line while--”

Sweetie took a deep breath, “What you may not realize, General, is that we wouldn’t even need to be here if your Emperor wasn’t a psychopath who practically handed the future Queen of Blades to the Zerg on a silver platter. Any past invasions of Char you may have made in the past were pretty much cleaning up your Emperor’s mess. So I wouldn’t go waving around your manhood If I were you, unless you wanna be reminded that the greatest moments of your career were ultimately that of a glorified butler.”

Warfield ground his teeth. Before he could rebuke her, Valerian walked up to the trio to interrupt. “That’s enough. You have all made your points. I’ve invited Commander Raynor and Lieutenant Sweetie Drops here to assist us with any unforeseen contingencies. I have far too much invested in this undertaking to see it fail.” Valerian walked to his star map. “Speaking of which, you might particularly enjoy this next step.” He pressed a button on the map and an image of Arcturus’ head appeared.

“Valerian! I’ve just received a report you’ve taken half the fleet! Care to explain yourself, boy?” Arcturus said.

“Father, I am about to accomplish that which you never could. Today I will defeat the Queen of Blades and secure peace throughout the Dominion. By this act the people will finally know that I am a worthy successor to you.”

“I love your gumption, son, but you’re in way over your head. What makes you think you have the experience to-”

“He ain’t alone, Arcturus!” Raynor interrupted.

“Raynor...and I suppose you brought your equine bitches with you,” Arcturus said.

“Thanks for reminding me why I want to kill you almost as much as Kerrigan wants to,” Sweetie said.

“I would think that even one such as you should realize that treacherous bitch cannot be saved...None of you can be saved.”

“Once this is over, Arcturus, I suggest you cherish each day like they were your last, because you won’t get many. She will come for you.” Sweetie ended the transmission.

An alarm activated. The fleet came under attack from a swarm of Mutalisks. Valerian was not expecting an attack so soon. Sweetie figured that Kerrigan sensed them from orbit.

While the fleet was engaged with the Mutalisk swarm, Raynor, Sweetie and Lyra joined the number of drop pods to the planet’s surface. To ensure they made it to the surface, Sweetie took control of a few nearby Mutalisks to prevent Kerrigan’s Swarm from attacking them.

The battle in orbit and the surface turned chaotic as the numerous Dominion teams came under attack from the Swarm. The command structure was thrown into disarray and the Zerg were dominating the battle.

Raynor had warned Warfield earlier that anything predictable like a frontal assault would be a waste of effort. The General didn’t listen and his troops paid the price for his decisions.

“Do you think death is the worst thing that can happen to you here? Infestation is what’s coming for you. Soon all will serve the Swarm! And I will finally find out how Sweetie Drops keeps stealing control of my Zerg from me,” Kerrigan said.

“She’s tryin’ to get in our heads, man. We gotta keep it together!” Tychus said.

Tychus was healthy enough for combat, though Hanson told Tychus to take it easy. After analyzing the damage, she concluded that he had a few cracked ribs but he wasn't about to leave his old friend hanging.

“If we’re gonna pull this caper off, we need to rally as many survivors as we can,” Raynor said.

Matt indicated that there were Dominion groups fighting Zerg all over the area. He figured that they could be rallied to put together a strong enough fighting force.

It wasn’t long before the next Dominion drop pod landed. A few Marines were inside. A group of Zerglings and Hydralisks were poised to attack. Sweetie quickly moved to help them. She took control of the Zerg before rallying the Dominion troops.

To their north was a creature that looked like a Virophage but appeared to be redesigned to shoot a green substance at whatever was in orbit. Sweetie had the controlled Zerg and Marines kill the Bile Launcher, as the Overmind called it. Since the Zerg reinforcements would only worsen the troops’ nerves, she sent the controlled group on a suicide run somewhere.

The next drop pod arrived and Sweetie quickly saved a small group of Marines and Marauders from a moderate group of Zerglings.

The pod after that contained a few Vultures and a Factory that somehow survived the landing since the metallic debris that had been falling from the sky were either buildings, pods or Battlecruisers.

The Vultures returned to the base and laid a perimeter of Spider Mines to reinforce the defenses.

When the next drop pod was rescued, a transmission came from General Warfield declaring his distress as his Battlecruiser was shot down and crashed behind enemy lines. The crew aboard the ship exited and established a defensive perimeter to hold off the Zerg and hope for rescue.

A Starport landed near the base and brought a Raven and a Medivac with it. With this rescue, they could get some ships built.

Sweetie bolstered the attack force by calling in every mercenary under her contract. Adding them to the growing army, they began pushing against the hive cluster on the way to Warfield.

Drop pods began dropping simultaneously and Sweetie and Lyra split up to deal with the Zerg near them. Sweetie took control of one group while Lyra wiped out another group with a series of Psionic Storms.

Matt soon reported that the last of the Dominion drop pods landed. Sweetie and Lyra moved to save both of them.

Once a massive fighting force was amassed, Sweetie and Lyra joined the push against the Zerg attacking Warfield.

The overwhelming firepower of the Dominion and Raiders quickly overpowered the Zerg defenses before Lyra moved in and slashed the heads off the Nydus Worms that were sending troops against the General.

They saw Warfield beginning to be overrun by the Zerg. A Hydralisk even hit the General’s right arm with a number of poisoned spines. Lyra came in and decapitated the Hydralisk that Warfield was wrestling. Sweetie, not wanting Warfield to know about her Zerg control ability, shot a number of Zerglings in the head.

Warfield was glad to see the Pony duo but hoped there were more than just them.

A swarm of Zerglings approached their location, but Raynor had deployed a wing of Banshees to provide air support.

With the General rescued, Sweetie and Lyra escorted the wounded man back to base.

Liberty: Invasion Part 2

Escorting Warfield back to base was slightly difficult since they had to defend the General the whole way because he lost his weapon and was walking around poisoned by Hydralisk spines. Eventually, and as a blow to Warfield’s pride, Sweetie had to carry the grizzled veteran the rest of the way to base while Lyra cut a path for them.

After a slow journey, Sweetie handed Warfield over to the medical teams for treatment. Warfield, however demanded that they simply amputate his arm and let him back on the battlefield. Once the Medics finally got Warfield to calm down, he finally acquiesced to the Medics and agreed to have a procedure done to replace his irrecoverable arm with a prosthetic.

While Warfield was complaining, the others decided to watch the news from the command console. Lockwell reported that the Zerg were withdrawing most of their forces back to Char. Everyone figured that Kerrigan was taking this battle seriously.

While everyone was fighting their hardest to drive the Zerg back, one fact could not be disputed: taking on Kerrigan’s hive would be too much for the Dominion force the way things were going. Something needed to be done to weaken the Zerg forces near Kerrigan’s primary hive cluster.

Sweetie called for a meeting between the leaders to hear their suggestions.

“Y’know, I’ve been thinkin’,” Tychus said.

“‘Scares me more than the Zerg,” Raynor quipped.

Tychus ignored Raynor’s jab, “We’re gonna have to take out those Nydus Worms before we can make a move on the main hive. Them Zerg burstin’ up under us wherever they please ain’t exactly conducive to our health and well-being.”

“True. Facing an army of Nydus Worms is a stress attack waiting to happen,” Sweetie said.

“Well, placing charges at the right spots in their Nydus network could flood the whole system with lava,” Raynor said before looking at Warfield. “What’s your take, General?”

“It’s dangerous, but it could work. Bigger problem’s still their fliers. Even if we could move our units forward, we can’t provide adequate air cover while the skies are contested.”

“Any suggestions?”

“Intel shows eighty percent of the Zerg fliers nest on an infested platform hanging in low orbit. We take that down, we’ll own the air.”

Tychus chimed in, “Hell, if this platform’s so important, why not just nuke it?”

“The nests are burrowed deep into the superstructure. Surface detonations won’t do it. We’d need to land a strike force on the platform and take it apart piece by piece.”

“What if we take the tunnels and the platform out?” Sweetie asked.

“We don’t have time to do both. We could if I weren’t going to be out of commission for a while for the procedure.”

“Actually, we do. Raynor can lead a small group into the tunnels and plant the charges. I can take command of the strike force and dismantle the platform. We conduct these missions simultaneously and we will be in a much better position for the final push.”

“Huh, never considered that. It’s bold but it should work.”

“This guy is a General?” Sweetie thought.

Raynor gathered up Tychus, Swann and Stetmann for their operation. Warfield put together the strike force to accompany Sweetie to the platform while Sweetie convinced Lyra to go with Raynor to make sure he doesn’t get everyone killed.

Sweetie landed a Dropship near an area that would be ideal for a base location. A hive cluster was holding the location. Sweetie needed to take it out before the strike force arrived. Taking control of every Zerg in the hive cluster, she ordered the creatures to attack their own hive cluster before making them retreat to another location on the platform. The strike force arrived soon after to establish their base.

During the briefing, Raynor pointed out a series of coolant towers that were keeping the active reactors in the platform at a safe temperature. Taking out the towers would cause the reactors to overheat and meltdown, annihilating each platform and every living thing on them.

Defenses were set up at each of the area’s chokepoints: Bunkers, Siege Tanks, Missile Turrets and a Psi Disrupter to slow Zerg attacks. The Zerg were sending every strain they were currently using. Sweetie took control of Brood Lords to keep them from striking the defenses from far away.

Sweetie ordered the construction of a number of Ghost Academies in order to load them up with Nukes. A large number of Vikings and Banshees were built for an eventual air strike and were supported by Hel’s Angels, Dusk Wings and Jackson’s Revenge.

Meanwhile, Sweetie made a move against a small hive cluster south of the base. She leveled the living base with the Nukes she ordered. After, she ordered the nuked area to be claimed for its resources.

A large group of Marines, Medics, Firebats and Reapers were rallied to engage the first hive cluster that was protecting the first coolant tower. In the chaos of the attack, Sweetie loosed her current stock of Nukes against the tower. When the structure toppled, the reactor began growing unstable. Sweetie ordered all troops to withdraw from the platform section.

Not even a minute passed before the section was shredded and full of holes.

Lyra joined Raynor, Tychus, Swann and Stetmann for their adventure into the dark, dangerous and lava filled caverns beneath Char’s surface.

“Alright let’s keep this quick and easy. Move out,” Raynor said.

Up ahead were some Zerg that were conveniently set up in a line. Lyra wasn’t sure she wanted to know what was going through their heads at the time they set up such a formation. But she did know what went through their heads once Raynor tried out his Mark Twelve Penetrator Rounds on them.

The next group was Lyra’s prey as she used her Storm Charge that sliced through a pair of Spine Crawlers and fried any Zerg that survived the initial strike with electricity.

Tychus demanded the next group as he wanted to try out some Shredder Grenades. The blast was wide and took out a whole cluster of Zerg.

Lyra took out the next group which featured a number of Spine Crawlers, and Roaches as the big threat among them.

Raynor detected a large number of Zerglings ahead. Swann deployed his Flamin’ Betty flame turret to roast the Zerg. Raynor and Tychus supported the turret with their own weapons.

Warfield let the group know that there were some squads in the caverns that needed rescuing. Finding the group shortly after the transmission, the Zerg between the squad and Raynor’s group engaged his group. Lyra snuck past the Zerg and sliced the tentacles off the Spine Crawlers among them and stabbed each one with their own tendril. The squad of Marines and a Medic were very thankful for the rescue.

Swann and Stetmann were expressing their fear just before a large number of Zerg surfaced. Swann quickly reacted by deploying Flamin’ Betty. Raynor and Tychus fired their special rounds and Lyra butchered the group that surfaced behind them.

.Just before the first fissure, four Nydus Worms surfaced. Tychus threw a grenade at two of them while Lyra cut the heads off the other two.

Swann planted the first nuclear charge on the first fault line. A defensive perimeter was made to defend the charge long enough for the device to activate. Lyra personally defended one choke point while the others coordinated their attacks against the Zerg from the other two. Zerglings, Hydralisks, Nydus Worms carrying Broodlings, Aberrations and Roaches were the aggressors until the charge was ready to detonate. Once the device was ready, everyone ran deeper into the caverns to find the next fault line. The explosion caused the caverns to rumble briefly.

Before moving on to the next platform section, Sweetie made sure there were adequate defenses to protect the mining operations south of the main base. She had a few Vikings protect the defensive position to deal with Brood Lords.

While this was happening, a number of Banshees and Wraiths moved against another small hive cluster west of the base.

After that brief attack, the ships moved against the larger hive cluster.

Surprisingly, the hive cluster had very little to offer in terms of air defenses. With only a few Spore Crawlers and Hydralisks to protect them, the ships simply ignored the Zerg and assaulted the coolant tower.

Victorious after one of the easiest aerial strikes a pilot could imagine, and after saying that it was too easy over the radio, the ships returned to base.

Just as Sweetie figured would happen, Murphy struck. This time in the form of a number of Zerg flyers entering the vicinity of the platform. One among them was a massive strain of Zerg that was previously unrecorded. The Overmind assured Sweetie that the creature was of the largest Zerg strain in the Swarm, so they didn’t come any bigger. Sweetie knew that there was going to be a huge fight on their hands as she and her forces were about to contend with a Leviathan.

Lyra and the others emerged from a tunnel into another section of the caverns. The first thing they came across was an Infestor with a number of shambling infested humans.

The current section of the caverns were filled with countless infested humans. Lyra doubted that every one of them were in the cavern when they were captured, meaning that the Zerg had been taking prisoners from their invasion and taking them to Char for infestation.

The group continued pushing their way through hundreds of infested humans. Their slow movements made dealing with them easy targets for Flamin’ Betty and Raynor’s Penetrator Rounds. Tychus opened holes in the human swarm with his grenades. Lyra finished the rest off with a Storm Charge.

Warfield alerted everyone to another group in danger. After a sarcastic remark from Tychus, the group charged forward and quickly eliminated a pair of Nydus Worms sending Broodlings at a pair of Firebats and a Medic. Just like the last one, the Dominion squad was grateful for the rescue. The squad also warned of a large number of Worms in the cavern ahead.

Just like the Firebat warned, numerous Nydus Worms burst from the ground in the serpentine-like cavern, releasing countless infested against the group. Lyra moved ahead and slew each Worm one by one. At the start of the second bend, an Ultralisk surfaced just in time for Lyra to return and slice off the beast’s blades, then legs, then thrust her bane blade into its face before using her warp blade to run a cut along its massive head.

The group reached the second fissure and Swann placed a charge as they prepared to defend it. The procedure was the same as before, Lyra defended one choke point, the others defend the rest. Infested were coming at them in droves while Banelings added to the fun. Lyra had to kill the Banelings from a distance so she used Psionic Storms to cause the swollen creatures to burst prematurely.

Raynor soon told everyone to get clear so they entered the next tunnel that would take them even deeper into the fiery caverns.

Dealing with a massive Zerg like a Leviathan was going to be a challenge. Sweetie wasn’t about to try and control such a creature.

Instead, she had a large number of Vikings and Wraiths constructed to reinforce the ones she had to take on the Leviathan. For good measure, she also ordered a number of Battlecruisers constructed to help deal with the creature.

Setting an intercept course for the Leviathan, the ships prepared themselves for a tough battle. When the massive beast noticed them, it deployed a number of Mutalisks to try and even the odds. The Mutalisks were shot down quickly but the Leviathan launched a powerful attack that took down a Battlecruiser. The beast’s tentacles began impaling ships one by one while taking the firepower of the ships as well as it could.

Soon, the Leviathan succumbed to the constant barrage and fell onto the platform with a ground-shaking crash.

During the battle, Sweetie took a large number of infantry with her to the hive cluster at the southeastern end of the platform, taking out another small hive cluster along the way.

The platform section carried heavy air defenses with several openings for Mutalisks to emerge. With a more balanced defense of Spine and Spore Crawlers defending the hive cluster, getting to the next coolant tower might pose a small challenge to Sweetie if she didn’t have infantry with her.

The infantry escorted Sweetie near the next coolant tower before she began launching several Nukes at the tower, taking a few Zerg with the strikes.

Sweetie and the infantry retreated to a staging area and awaited the ships that survived the Leviathan attack and prepared to take out the last tower.

The next section featured more infested except these were still hatching from Zerg eggs.

The first bunch of eggs they came across all hatched as if to ambush the group while an Infestor was deploying more infested.

Fighting through more infested eggs, Tychus was getting irritated at whoever was causing the eggs to hatch as they conveniently arrived.

Warfield alerted the group once more of another group in danger. A squad of Marines were being attacked by an unusually large Ultralisk. The overgrown behemoth began digging at the rock wall that separated the Marines from a brutal end.

Lyra brutally murdered the massive Ultralisk just like she murdered the last one. She then dug through the rocks to find the squad completely stunned by what the Unicorn did. “You are one scary badass, you know?” one said. Lyra giggled at their comment.

The group quickly arrived at the last fissure. Once Swann deployed his last charge in what appeared to be a room with many infested eggs, a loud, feminine screech could be heard.

A very large Zerg surfaced. It had a large segmented head, long tendrils and a long body with six legs that were held together by membrane. The creature also had black dreadlocks.

The creature was referred to as a Queen, though Lyra was unfamiliar with this variety. The Queen was personally hatching eggs and sending more infested against the group.

Lyra was not going to let her continue so she jumped on the Queen’s back and started cutting her legs off. The Queen bucked Lyra off before the Pony Templar grabbed onto her dreadlocks and ran her warp blade through the Queen’s chest. The Queen screamed in agony and tried to burrow to escape but didn’t count on Lyra holding on to her.

By the time the Queen surfaced, she collapsed into a motionless heap.

While the threat was neutralized, a large number of Nydus Worms emerged and unleashed Zerglings on the charge. Having no time to waste, Swann deployed Flamin’ Betty to keep the Zerg busy.

It was time for a mad dash to the exit.

Sweetie gathered all of her forces that were mustered for one all out attack against the last coolant tower. She also called in every mercenary group that she had not called in yet.

The army charged forward and into the lower area where the tower was. Sweetie took control of a number of Brood Lords to use against the tower. Ultralisks were turned against their former allies.

The Zerg were easily overwhelmed and were unable to prevent Sweetie or her army from getting to the last coolant tower and toppling it.

Once the destruction was confirmed, everyone evacuated the platform section, returned to base, then finally boarded transports that would return them to the surface of Char.

Lyra’s group ran as fast as they could to outrun the rising lava. Zerg constantly got in their way to slow them down.

Through snipes, grenades, turrets and Lyra’s power, the group quickly got past the Zerg defenses and outran the lava flow. Everyone cheered when they managed to escape the caverns alive.

With their objective accomplished, everyone returned to the main base. Lyra was eager to hear how Bon Bon fared in her attack on the space platform.

Liberty: Invasion Part 3

~”It would be unwise to participate in this battle”~

The Overmind warned her that if she returned to Char to personally confront Kerrigan, she ran the risk of losing the parasite to the artifact emanations. The Xel’naga artifact had the ability to affect Zerg and Protoss by absorbing their essence or psionic power respectively. The risk that the artifact would absorb the Overmind remnants was high.

After trying to think of a way to block the artifact’s power from her, she came to the conclusion that neither she nor the Overmind had enough knowledge of the artifact to devise a way to block its power. She only had one option and it truly frustrated her to no end: she would have to sit out the final battle.

Dominion and Raider alike were not looking too well. Constantly holding the line against the Zerg had taken its toll on them.

Sweetie, Lyra and Raynor wandered around the base. They saw plenty of dead Marines around them; a grim reminder of the sacrifices that were made to stop the Zerg invasion.

Suddenly it started raining, something that Sweetie was sure was a very rare occurrence on a volcanic planet.

Raynor saw the fallen form of one of his Raiders in front of him. Kneeling down, he pulled the dogtags off the fallen soldier. Looking at them, Raynor saw the name ‘M. Koiter’ as well as the date of birth and his home planet. He took a moment of silence for his fallen comrade.

A Medivac arrived in the area. Upon landing, the cargo door opened to reveal Warfield.

Warfield’s right arm had been replaced by a mechanical one that could transform into a cannon.

Raynor approached the General. “It’s good to see you on your feet, General.”

Warfield chuckled. “Well, we’ll see how long that lasts.” Raynor chuckled as well. Warfield returned his arm to its ‘hand’ mode. “I brought you all a present.”

A pair of Dominion Marines carried a metallic box out of the Medivac and placed it on the ground. The box opened to reveal the Xel’naga artifact.

Almost immediately, Sweetie began feeling a headache just from being near the object. Lyra figured that something was up with her marefriend and that it may have to do with the parasite inside her. “What’s wrong, Bonnie?” she asked. While she already knew, she needed to be sure that no one else got suspicious.

“Ugh...take me inside the Medivac, Lyra,” Sweetie said. Lyra carried her on her shoulder. When they entered, the cargo door closed. Sweetie put up her privacy spells to make sure neither the people outside the Medivac nor the Medivac pilot were listening.

“I’m gonna guess that the Overmind is reacting to the Xel’naga artifact,” Lyra said.

“Yeah, unless there’s a way to block the effects of the artifact. I’ll need to sit this mission out or risk losing the parasite to the artifact.”

“Why do you need it in the first place? Don’t you already know what you need to know about the Zerg?”

“Well actually, I…”

~”There might be a way around this dilemma, but it is extremely dangerous. Up until now, we were both content with this current relationship. However, in this situation, extreme measures would have to be taken for you to participate in this battle. I can implant my consciousness within you, discarding the last of my former shell. However, a brain was not designed to house more than one whole consciousness. The two of us would compete for dominance of the body.

~”If you intend to follow on this offer, there will come a time when your mind and my own will battle for dominance and only one will survive. There will be no going back.”~

Sweetie took a long moment to consider the Overmind’s offer. “If I do win in such a competition, what would I gain from you?”

~”You would gain the entirety of my knowledge as well as all of my secrets; secrets that would allow you to gain absolute dominion over the entire Swarm.”~

“While the knowledge and secrets seem enticing, I have no intention of leading the entire Swarm.” Sweetie thought for a while whether the deal was a good idea.

Lyra noticed Sweetie’s internal conflict. “Umm...What are you and the Overmind talking about?”

Sweetie was broken out of her thoughts. She looked at Lyra, “It is offering to plant its consciousness into my mind which is dangerous, and if I go along with this, I can’t back out of my plans to obtain the power that I need to combat Amon and his forces when they come.”

“How dangerous is it?”

“Its consciousness and mine would compete and eventually destroy the other.”

Lyra’s pupils shrank to the size of pin pricks. She didn’t want to consider the possibility of losing her marefriend to a mental battle against an ancient mind. “There has to be another way. I don’t wanna lose you.”

Sweetie chuckled. “What do you think we have been doing these past four years? Every battle we go into is a risk to our lives. I could have lost you to the judgemental beliefs of the Conclave, or to Kerrigan at some point, or even to the to the Tal’darim when they captured you and made you compete in an arena for three years. A mental battle with the Overmind is just a different battlefield with the same rule: survive.”

Lyra thought about it for a moment and realized that she was right. For all their battles in the Koprulu sector, this was just another battle. Lyra narrowed her eyes at Sweetie. “Alright, but don’t you dare lose.”

Sweetie giggled, “I don’t intend to.”

Sweetie mentally told the Overmind to perform the procedure. At first, Sweetie didn’t feel any different, but then she started feeling like her sense of self-consciousness was going into overdrive; like a stranger that was staring at her while she was in the shower. She was becoming increasingly uncomfortable as she truly felt like the last shred of privacy she had left had vanished.

Sweetie managed to push her uncomfortable thoughts away and looked at Lyra. “This is going to take some getting used to.”

Hanson was continuing her research in the second lab into the studies of Zerg xenobiology. During this time, she became curious about what life would be like if she were a Zerg among its own kind. As an infested, she could gain direct insight into the inner workings of Zerg culture. While a cure for the Zerg virus was her primary concern, her scientific mind was also competing with that concern.

If given the opportunity, Hanson wanted to study the Zerg in a non-hostile setting.

Suddenly, she received a psychic transmission from Sweetie, “We’re beginning the final push against Kerrigan soon. This may be your only opportunity to become human again. If you choose to become human, we will drop you off at Haven so you can continue your research there. But if you choose to remain Zerg, I would like your assistance in a future project of mine. Your scientific mind and medical prowess would be invaluable.”

At that point, Hanson’s desire to be human went to war with her scientific curiosity. The result was close, but the deciding factor was the opportunity to help humanity understand the Zerg by living among them. As long as hope remained in her for a cure for the virus, she was sure another chance to be human again would come.

In the end, Hanson psychically told Sweetie that she would remain Zerg for a while longer and that if there was a cure, she would find it and be the first that she would cure. Sweetie respected Hanson’s decision and returned to the matter at hand.

When they left the Medivac, the atmosphere had improved in the camp. The soldiers, Dominion and Raiders, were prepared to put their lives on the line for the final push against Kerrigan’s primary hive cluster.

Since there was still time before the final attack, Sweetie and Lyra decided to see what was going on in the news. To their surprise, Donny Vermillion had committed himself to a mental institution. Sweetie suspected that it had to do with his mental breakdown after finding out that Arcturus, the man that he had displayed his obvious favoritism toward, was responsible for his brother’s death on Tarsonis. The disillusionment was probably too much for his psyche to take.

When Kate Lockwell said that she would be UNN’s lead anchor, Sweetie wished the woman all the luck in the sector as Kate was celebrating her promotion.

Everything was set up in front of Kerrigan’s primary hive cluster. The Dominion engineers moved the artifact to the base of the hive cluster with everything the Dominion had defending it. Everything was riding on the operation succeeding.

While the device charged, it could unleash an energy nova to kill all Zerg in a wide radius. The final nova would take a long time to charge up.

Thankfully, without the platform or the Nydus tunnels, Kerrigan would have to rely on her standing forces to fight the invaders.

Kerrigan suddenly spoke to everyone telepathically, “You’ve brought me the Xel’naga artifact - just as Sweetie promised.”

A massive Zerg force charged toward the artifact. The Dominion was unprepared for such an attack so they were forced to unleash an energy nova to psionically roast the numerous Zerg attackers.

“An impressive defense - but not nearly impressive enough. My forces are without numbers , and yours are dwindling by the minute. This can only end one way.”

0%

The first few minutes were spent preparing a solid defense. Numerous Bunkers were built and Siege Tanks were constructed to defend all choke points. Missile turrets were also constructed. Even if eighty percent of the flyers were destroyed by platform explosions, Kerrigan still had the other twenty at her command. Perdition Turrets were built to fry any Zerglings that came near.

10%

The Zerg began pushing hard against the defenders. Many Zerglings and Hydralisks moved against the Terran defenses. The destructive power of Siege Tanks blew holes into the Zergling Swarm while Psi Disrupters and Marauder grenades slowed the Zerg long enough for the Siege Tanks to deal with them.

29%

An alert went out as sensors detected a Class twelve psionic waveform heading straight for the base.

Kerrigan was coming.

“I’m tired of working through others. It’s time I took a personal hand in your demise.”

Sweetie and Lyra were ready to meet her when she arrived. While Dominion troops started firing at the Queen of Blades, Kerrigan saw Sweetie and prepared a powerful psionic blast to throw at her. Lyra intercepted the attack with a blast of her own. As the two clashed energies, Sweetie hit Kerrigan with a powerful Psionic Lash that dealt a painful blow to the infested human.

Taking too much damage, Kerrigan teleported back to her hive to recover.

“You’ll regret that.”

40%

Zerg attacks began to intensify. Roaches and Mutalisks began attacking the base. Sweetie caused some chaos within groups of Zerg by turning some against each other. Lyra fried her share of Zerg with her Psionic Storm and Storm Charge abilities.

Lyra also used a technique that she learned from Alarak. By concentrating her energies to pull the life force from Zerg around her, she created a blood-colored sphere of energy that she could use to attack enemies or heal her wounds. She used the energy to launch a wave that slashed through a large group of Zerg.

46%

Kerrigan returned with a vengeance. At the same time a large number of Overlords drifted into the base to drop Zerglings behind the defensive lines. While Sweetie and Lyra acted against Kerrigan again, the base’s defenders scrambled to deal with as many Overlords as they could with Vikings while Marines took care of whatever the flyers managed to drop.

Kerrigan unleashed a swarm of deadly insects on Sweetie. For a moment the insects were biting away at her before Lyra stole the life from the bugs and used the life to empower her bane blade for a strike that heavily wounded Kerrigan, forcing her to retreat again.

61%

By this time, Kerrigan was growing irritated with Sweetie’s and Lyra’s antics. She was ready to unleash a large number of her minions against the Ponies.

Kerrigan made a huge mistake.

Sweetie stole control of the Zerg that were around Kerrigan and they began to attack her. Sweetie hit Kerrigan with another Psionic Lash before forcing her to retreat again.

Everyone could hear the scream as they heard Kerrigan shouting, “DAMN YOU SWEETIE DROPS!”

70%

The Zerg began hitting the Dominion with everything they had. Ultralisks and occasional Brood Lords began assaulting the base. Raynor had Hive Mind Emulators built to control Zerg while providing Sweetie the perfect cover to use her Zerg control ability to use the Ultralisks and Brood Lords against attacking waves without alerting Warfield to what she was really capable of. Vikings continued to seek out Mutalisks.

79%

At this point, Kerrigan was furious and out for pony blood. In her reckless charge, she was met with the barrels of many Siege Tanks and a downpour of rockets from Banshees. Sweetie and Lyra stayed at the back of the base while Kerrigan’s endurance was not enough to get past the massive bombardment. Kerrigan snapped out of her rage and retreated before she ended up killed.

96%

Sweetie and Lyra knew that this would be Kerrigan’s last attempt to take out the device charging the artifact. The two of them knew that she would be desperate by this point.

Once Kerrigan arrived, everything was brought against her. Kerrigan countered by unleashing numerous swarms of insects and causing the vehicles to implode. Lyra stole the life of the insects while Sweetie summoned all of her mercenaries at once to add to the massive amount of firepower being concentrated at the Queen of Blades.

Kerrigan was forced to retreat once more.

“Hang in there, Kerrigan. Just a little more.” Sweetie thought.

100%

“It’s now or never, General! HIT IT!” Raynor said.

Warfield hit the button to discharge the full power of the artifact. The resulting energy nova annihilated every Zerg over a huge area and obliterated Kerrigan’s hive cluster.

Sweetie felt her head burn for a few moments as she figured that the parasite in her head burned away. The parasite’s last act to protect Sweetie was using its cells to prevent any potential brain damage.

Shaking her head for a moment, Sweetie mentally asked if the Overmind was still there.

~”I am still here. My form was destroyed but my knowledge, consciousness and essence now reside within your brain.”~

“That is really creepy, but it’s on my growing list of things to get used to with you.”

Sweetie, Raynor, Tychus and Lyra entered the ruins of Kerrigan’s hive, wary of any surviving Zerg or the potential of the artifact not working on Kerrigan.

Lying in a cloud of mist was Kerrigan’s naked, sickly and human body. The artifact had emaciated the former Queen of Blades to where she was unable to stand.

Tychus looked at Kerrigan for a moment before turning to Raynor. “Hurry and pick her up, Jimmy boy. If we’re gonna take her away, we’re gonna have to get through the Dominion first if we don’t hurry up.”

“Right.” Raynor moved in and picked up Kerrigan’s vulnerable form. Tychus took out a sheet of fabric that he had been carrying for use if the mission succeeded. He said that the fabric would protect Kerrigan from the harsh conditions of Char as he wrapped her inside it. Raynor turned to Sweetie and Lyra. “Our deal with the Dominion is done. If you see any of them gettin’ aggressive, take ‘em out.” The Ponies nodded in affirmation.

Raynor, Tychus, Sweetie and Lyra made the trek back to Raynor’s Dropship and everyone boarded it before Raynor got in the seat and lifted off. He used every ounce of speed the ship was capable of to get back to the Hyperion as fast as he could.

While the Dominion troops were celebrating their victory over the Queen of Blades, Narud was nearby. He was in between a glowing and a dark Hybrid.

Narud took a moment to take in the scene of ignorant humans celebrating a victory while unaware that they had just given him the key to his master’s revival. Once he was done watching, he turned to the Hybrid next to him. “Do it. Drain the Keystone. We will use every ounce of energy taken from the Queen of Blades to revive our master.”

The Hybrid obeyed his command and remotely drained the artifact of its power. Once the process was finished, the Hybrid were brimming with energy. With that, Narud and the Hybrid vanished from Char.

Interlude: Flashpoint

With the conflict against the Zerg resolved and Kerrigan had been restored to humanity, Raynor, Tychus, Sweetie and Lyra boarded Raynor’s dropship and started making their way to the Hyperion.

Raynor received a transmission from Valerian aboard the Bucephalus, <”Jim, my father’s flagship is nearby. Bring Kerrigan aboard the Bucephalus. We need to get away from here and my ship stands a better chance than the Hyperion.”>

“How do we know we can trust you?” Raynor asked.

<”There’s no time for questioning loyalties, Jim. The White Star will soon be upon us.”>

“He’s right,” Sweetie said. “We don’t have the luxury of questioning our associates right now. Head to the Bucephalus.”

With that, Raynor did as Sweetie suggested and docked his ship in one of the Bucephalus’ hangars.

Once the group disembarked, still carrying a sickly Kerrigan, they were met by Valerian who ordered one of his men to escort Tychus, who was carrying Kerrigan, to the sick bay. The rest of the group followed Valerian to the bridge.

It wasn’t long before a large number of Dominion Battlecruisers arrived in the area. One particularly large Battlecruiser was leading them.

The large ship sent a transmission to the Bucephalus, directly from Arcturus. <”Attention all ships of the Char Expedition, this is Emperor Arcturus Mengsk of the Terran Dominion. You are harboring rebels and threats to the safety of the Terran Dominion. You are to turn over Sarah Kerrigan immediately for execution.”>

“I’m sorry, father, we cannot accept your demands. Kerrigan is far too important to the future of the Universe,” Valerian said.

<“Very well. All ships, destroy the Bucephalus.”>

At that moment, the Hyperion flew past the White Star, bringing a massive swarm of Mutalisks with them. Detecting easier prey, the Mutalisks broke off from chasing the Hyperion and began attacking Arcturus’ fleet.

With the fleet distracted, Valerian ordered his half of the fleet to use their jump drives and get away from Char.

During the brief verbal exchange, Arcturus’ fleet attacked Valerian’s fleet. Both sides sustained damage.

During the jump, Valerian talked with the Raiders. “I received word from the doctors in the sick bay that Kerrigan will make a full recovery. But we need to be sure the artifact had the desired effect on her. We need to go see an expert on the Zerg. The only one I know that would be the best one for the job would be Dr. Narud.”

Narud, the leader of the Moebius Foundation and Amon’s servant. Valerian was unknowingly taking them to a troublesome person. While Sweetie would prefer to stay clear of the wicked being until she was sure she could take him, another part of her wanted to meet the person face to face.

Suddenly, the fleet was once again under attack by Arcturus’ fleet. “How did they find us so fast?” Valerian asked nobody. “Unless the Dominion put tracking devices on the ship.”

Valerian had the crew run a scan of the ship’s interior and exterior and discovered nothing. “Damn, they must be using covert trackers. We don’t have time to look for them.”

“Swann can find anything that don’t belong on a ship or vehicle. Have the fleet buy us some time to get them on board and find the trackers,” Raynor said.

While the battered fleet engaged Arcturus’ ships, the Hyperion docked with the Bucephalus. Swann came aboard with a pair of engineers that he bosses around. One was named Earl. He never gave his last name. The other was named Annabelle Thatcher.

Raynor was at the other end of the docking tube to greet them. “Hey hot shot, heard ya got some pesky trackers givin’ ya trouble,” Swann said.

“Think you can find ‘em in a few hours?” Raynor asked.

“Leave it to me.” With that, Swann, Earl and Annabelle began searching every part of the Bucephalus for the elusive tracking devices. After a thorough search from top to bottom, Swann was fairly confident that he had removed them all.

During the time that Swann was searching for trackers, the fleet jumped multiple times. Each time Arcturus wasn’t far behind.

In an effort to weaken the pursuit, one of the rebel Battlecruisers rammed into the White Star, heavily damaging the flagship.

Once the trackers were removed, the Hyperion and Bucephalus performed another jump to lose the pursuit.

“Any suggestions on where we can go to get away, Jim? They could easily corner us at any Moebius facility.” Valerian asked.

Raynor thought for a moment before he had an idea. “We can hide for a while at Deadman’s Rock. Mira is good friends with Sweetie and Matt.”

“Alright, I’ll ask Dr. Narud to meet us there.”

“I’ll tell Matt that we’re headin’ there. He might complain but this ain’t the time to be worryin’ about his feelings.”

Sweetie was in the sick bay of the Bucephalus watching Kerrigan, who had been unconscious for a while.

Sweetie was relieved that a crucial part of her plan to eventually deal with Amon had been overcome. Kerrigan was absolutely necessary to keep the Swarm out of the clutches of the fallen Xel’naga.

It was time to move on to the next phase of her plan. The Overmind had shown her the distant planet known as Zerus, the birthworld of the Zerg. However, it also didn’t want her heading there alone. It gave one condition before it would tell her the coordinates to the planet: convince Kerrigan to go with her.

Kerrigan stirred from her fitful sleep. Her eyes opened to reveal an empty expression that was devoid of vigor. Her eyes soon focused on Sweetie. “Sweetie? Is that you?”

Sweetie smiled. “Yes, it’s me.”

Kerrigan groaned. “Why did you rescue me? Wouldn’t everyone else be better off with me dead? I’ve killed billions as the Queen of Blades.”

“Maybe so, but I still have need of you. The Universe’s future depends on you living. You’re the biggest threat to Amon’s plans.”

“That’s a bit grandiose, don’t you think? You would ask me to become the Queen of Blades again to save this Universe?”

“I would, but that is your decision. Though I know that Jim would tell you to throw away your desire for revenge against Arcturus and just run away with him. That man is still head over heels for you even after all you’ve done.”

“Ya got that right,” came the voice of Raynor from behind Sweetie. “I don’t wanna think about having her go through that hell again.”

Sweetie knew not to get in between Raynor and Kerrigan and left the two to each other’s company.

Before Sweetie walked out of the room, Raynor spoke to her, “You and I are gonna have a talk about a few things later.” Sweetie nodded and walked out.

The battered Battlecruisers arrived at Deadman’s Rock. Raynor, Valerian, Tychus, Sweetie, Lyra, Matt and Kerrigan were greeted by Mira and Narud when they arrived on the surface.

Narud’s aura was even more terrifying up close. Lyra was tempted to break the secrecy that she and Sweetie agreed upon but restrained herself.

“Ah, greetings Commander Raynor, Lieutenant Sweetie Drops. I am pleased to finally meet the two of you in person,” Narud said.

“Matthew! We finally see each other after all this time and still no hug or kiss? What kind of marriage do you think this is?” said Mira playfully. Matt rolled his eyes.

“Anyway, since I am busy,” she continued, ”I’ll leave you in the hands of my associate, Gary Crane.” she pointed to Crane.

Sweetie took a look at the person long enough to find out what the person was thinking, “Looks like the rebels are here with that monster. I need to inform the Emperor quickly. Need to inform my men to make sure the rebels don’t leave either.”

Sweetie narrowed her eyes at Crane then walked up to Mira and whispered to her about what she found out.

Mira gave a wide smile before looking at Crane. She spoke in a singsong tone, “Oh Gary…”

Crane and Mira walked up to each other. “What is it ma’am?” he asked.

“Are you, perhaps, planning to betray me?”

Crane gulped and started to sweat. “M-Me? I-I would n-never…”

That was all the proof Mira needed, it wasn’t definitive proof but from a mercenary’s viewpoint, that was enough for her. She pulled out a pistol and emptied an entire clip into Crane’s chest. She replaced the magazine and fired one into Crane’s head for good measure. She turned to face the others. “Sorry about that messy business. Since I can’t trust my subordinates anymore, I’ll have to give you the tour myself.

Mira gave everyone a tour of the lawless town of Deadman’s Rock, noting each business and house. She invited them into a bar where they could have a meeting and discuss what they need to help Kerrigan in her return to humanity.

Narud made the suggestion that they travel to one of his secret Moebius Foundation installations on Space Station Prometheus in order to properly examine her. Sweetie had a foreboding feeling that Narud was leading them into a trap. This was one trap she was not going to spring.

When everyone agreed to head to Prometheus, Sweetie with the intention of confronting Narud before getting there, everyone except Mira boarded the Bucephalus and set course for the space station.

In the hangar of the Bucephalus, the Xel’naga artifact was being held for storage. One elderly-looking man was looking at the artifact held inside a special container. He ran a hand along the texture of the stone the relic was composed of.

While he was looking at the artifact, a pair of Ponies walked into the hangar to observe the doctor. When he saw the two he put on the best friendly smile he could. “Ah, Sweetie Drops and Lyra Heartstrings. I was wondering if I could have a moment of your time. I have been trying to convince Kerrigan to let me examine her but she outright refuses to let me take a look. Maybe you two could help me persuade her.”

Sweetie and Lyra looked at each other for a moment then looked at Narud again. “We’re not letting you near Kerrigan again, Narud. I also convinced Valerian and Jim to alter course away from Space Station Prometheus,” Sweetie said.

Narud was confused by the change in course and the Ponies’ behavior toward him. He could only ask why they were acting hostile toward him.

Sweetie and Lyra looked at each other once again. Lyra received a nod from her marefriend. Lyra continued the conversation. “I believe that we met each other about four years ago on an uncharted dark moon.”

“Uhh...I have no idea what you’re talking about. I don’t remember meeting either of you before the time you assisted my Foundation on Tyrador when the Queen of Blades attacked.”

Sweetie spoke again, “You can drop the act, Emil Narud. Or do you want to be addressed as your previous alias, Samir Duran.”

Narud stared at the Ponies for about ten seconds before he began to laugh which quickly turned into an evil laugh. When Narud spoke again, his voice became slightly distorted. “I have no idea how you figured out my identity. No matter, I will deal with you both here.”

Narud began unleashing powerful psionic blasts at Sweetie and Lyra, who were dodging the attacks well considering they were fighting in a nearly empty hangar with a box that contained a powerful artifact inside.

Sweetie attacked Narud with her Psionic Lash that did hurt the Xel’naga a little. Lyra used her quick speed and reflexes to catch Narud off guard, but he was ready for her attacks as he matched Lyra’s speed. Narud managed to land a blow on Lyra with a psionically charged punch to her chest which pushed her back to the far side of the hangar.

Narud turned his attention to Sweetie who had her rifle out. She fired a couple of shots at Narud’s head but he stopped them in mid-air and let the bullets fall. Lyra charged at Narud again to unleash her own psionic attack at him, but Narud deployed a plasma shield to absorb the damage.

Sweetie fired a few EM rounds at Narud’s shield and caused it to shatter. Lyra fired another psionic blast at Narud and this one connected, knocking him into a wall.

While he figured he could still defeat the Ponies, he didn’t have time to do so as the racket they had been causing would likely bring unwanted company. Narud teleported to the box containing the artifact. “The Emperor would be most grateful to have this,” he said. Narud teleported away, the box with him.

Sweetie cursed under her breath as they allowed Narud to get away with the artifact. With nothing left to do, Sweetie and Lyra returned to the bridge.

“To think that Emil was an enemy this whole time. We founded the Moebius Foundation together. To think that the group we created together would be a front for his Hybrid project.” Valerian sat in his chair trying to process the treachery that had occurred under his nose.

“You’re not the only one who had been betrayed today. Just received word that Cooper, a bartender that works at the Hyperion’s cantina, was relayin’ our location to your dad,” Raynor said. “Gonna miss the Mai Tais he made. Swann ended up chuckin’ him out the airlock.”

After a few minutes of processing and coping, Valerian broke the silence, “I know of another place we can go to find solace and get Kerrigan checked out. The Umojan Protectorate are friends of mine and are independent of the Dominion. There’s a research station at XT39323. We can take her there and, hopefully, catch a break from my father.”

“I hope so, junior. I hope so.”

Swarm: Nova's Assault

While Raynor was paying a visit to a now-released Kerrigan, an upset Valerian walked up to Sweetie.

“Do you realize how much worse you made things by adding Banelings to Kerrigan’s little demonstration? The sublevel is a caustic mess thanks to all the acid they splashed all over the place.”

Sweetie shrugged, “Next time you want to experiment on Kerrigan, don’t. Her ability to control Zerg had no bearing on whether or not there was still mutagen in her body. My only concern about the mutagen is that Amon could manipulate her through it. Having her control a hive cluster in your little environment was just begging for disaster. She caused the Zergling rampage to show you that the Zerg will not be contained. I caused the mess to give you a lesson in humility. You may think that things couldn’t get worse with a Zergling rampage, but things can always get worse at any time.”

Valerian sighed, “I will take your lesson to heart.”

As Lyra and Sweetie walked away from Valerian, Lyra giggled and commented on how Sweetie was as brutal as ever.

Not even an hour passed before alarms went off in the station, signaling that they were under attack. A number of Dominion Battlecruisers closed in on the station. Once one was within range, it launched a number of drop pods to infiltrate the station.

Among the pods emerged a number of Marines along with a certain Ghost who ordered every Dominion soldier who entered the facility to hunt down Kerrigan.

One unfortunate team found Kerrigan and ended up completely destroyed by Kerrigan’s psionic power.

Another unfortunate team composed of Marines and a Ghost came across Sweetie and Lyra. Lyra took control of the Marines long enough to have them empty their clips into the Ghost before she ended the rest in a split second.

After fighting through more Dominion infiltrators, Sweetie and Lyra met up with Raynor and Kerrigan.

Valerian informed the four of them that he and the Raiders were cut off from their location and the four of them would have to find their way to Raynor’s ship.

The four move along a walkway and saw a pair Dominion Marauders in front of them. Kerrigan obliterated one with a Kinetic Blast while Sweetie used a Mindblast to kill her victim.

A Firebat and some Marines came in from a nearby corridor. Lyra unleashed a psionic blast that incinerated the small group.

Since the door the unfortunate group came from was sealed, the four moved further down the walkway.

A group of Umojan Marines greeted them and let them know that a Dominion insertion team was headed their way. What they saw was a group of Marines around a Ghost. Sweetie’s Mindblast was all that was needed to end them as their heads exploded.

A Umojan scientist directed the group to a recovery terminal in case they had sustained any damage or needed a recharge. Since the group’s reaction times were faster than the Dominion troops, they were still unharmed but used the terminal anyway since Sweetie had been using her abilities the most.

A group of Marines and a Marauder were engaging in a fight with the Umojans while the Dominion troops’ backs were turned to the group. Kerrigan raised the enemies into the air and crushed their armor with the people inside.

The Umojans ran in the direction the four came from. A few drop pods landed near their location, though two ended up falling through the floor. Sweetie and Kerrigan each handled a team that emerged from the pods.

A group of Umojans saw the four headed toward them. A drop pod landed on one unfortunate Umojan. Lyra avenged the poor man by slicing up the Dominion that emerged from the pod.

Raynor informed everyone that they were near the tram station that would take them to Raynor’s ship. A Umojan informed Raynor that the corridor to the station was blocked and they needed to cut through the sublevel to get to the station.

With the main corridor blocked, Raynor requested for Valerian to open a side door. Valerian warned that some of the Zerg specimens escaped. Kerrigan was afraid to control the Zerg again but Sweetie wasn’t. When the side door opened, a number of Zerglings, Roaches and a Baneling emerged from the opening. Sweetie immediately took control of the Zerg and had them rally to her.

The now large group boarded the freight elevator to the sublevel. As the elevator descended, Nova spoke over the intercom, <”Kerrigan, my forces have taken control of the security hub. We are putting this facility on lockdown. Make this easy on everyone and surrender now.”>

“Ladies and gentleman, the Dominion’s biggest tool,” Sweetie quipped.

<”I heard that!”>

“I hope you did!”

When the elevator came to a stop, Sweetie moved the Zerg ahead of them to deal with any Dominion they came across while Sweetie, Raynor, Lyra and Kerrigan followed. While the fighting was happening elsewhere, Sweetie and Kerrigan took in the damage caused by a combination of her’s, Kerrigan’s and the Dominion’s actions. The area was wrecked and there was still acid everywhere.

The group didn’t have time to admire their work as the area was in the middle of being locked down and they needed to hurry past the first security partition. Dominion and Zerg were fighting each other while Sweetie noticed more feral Zerg in the area and took control of them. Numbers bolstered, the group forced their way through the Dominion forces.

Raynor and Kerrigan took the time to reminisce about the old days and joked about the changes in their hair.

The group made it past the first terminal and continued to the next one. Some debris was in their way and an Ultralisk was on the other side. Sweetie commanded the hulking beast to break through the debris and charge forward ahead of them. The Ultralisk eliminated a small Dominion team in its path. Another debris pile and another Ultralisk awaited them. The matter was handled the same as the last. Sweetie order the two beasts to clear the debris ahead of them and allow them past the second partition doors.

The psychics sensed a large number of Dominion in the next part. A security camera revealed some heavy machinery in the next room. Kerrigan used the terminal to release the Zerg from their cages. The Zerg tore into the Dominion and Sweetie took control of the Zerg that remained.

After one last group of Dominion, the four made it to the tram and past the last security doors. The Umojans told them that the Zerg were not to be allowed on the tram. Sweetie shrugged and she and the others boarded the tram.

Valerian let everyone know that he and everyone else were headed to the Hyperion.

Aboard the tram, everyone took a precious few moments to relax before one of the Umojans let them know that the Dominion breached the tunnels. Vikings and Wraiths began attacking the tram engines to strand the group in the tunnel. Kerrigan liberally used her Kinetic Blasts and Crushing Grip. Sweetie used her Lockdown and Psionic Lash as well as Mindblast when Medivacs dropped their cargo. Lyra carved up any vehicles that landed and she stole the life force from any Firebats that touched the tram and used that energy to knock Wraiths and Vikings out of the air.

Eventually, the tram came to a stop at the next station.

The Umojans greeted them and let them know that the Dominion deployed a heavy mech in the shuttle bay where Raynor kept his ship. They followed the Umojans to the shuttle bay, killing a few Dominion teams in the process. The pilot of the large mech called it the Archangel. Sweetie, Lyra and Kerrigan moved across the bridge while Raynor fought off some Dominion. The Archangel launched a barrage of missiles at the bridge and destroyed it, cutting the ladies off from Raynor who told them that he would find another way to them.

The Archangel engaged in battle with the Umojans and psychics. The machine started by trying to shoot a hailstorm of bullets ahead of it but Lyra sliced off the chainguns. It launched a barrage of missiles into the area but Lyra returned to Sweetie and Kerrigan and teleported everyone out of the targeted area.

When the Archangel launched into the air to deliver a strafe, a few Dominion pods landed. Kerrigan crushed one group while Sweetie used her Mindblast on another.

The Archangel landed with a stunning, heavy impact which Lyra helped the others avoid by teleporting them away from the impact radius. Sweetie took the time to unleash a Psionic Lash to heavily damage the Archangel. Pulling out her rifle, Sweetie fired a penetrating shot that went into the cockpit and hit the pilot in the head, leaving the Archangel without anyone to pilot it.

Raynor moved up the alternate path to the shuttle bay only to find that there was too much debris blocking the way. He received a transmission from Kerrigan, <”Hurry up, Jim! I think another wave is coming.”>

“Sarah, I’m cut off. I can’t get to your location. Take my ship and go,” Raynor said.

<”We just found each other again. I am not leaving you behind.”>

Valerian’s voice was suddenly heard from their communicators, telling them that he was aboard the Hyperion and heading to the rendezvous point. He asked about their status.

“Kerrigan is taking my drop ship. I need extraction,” Raynor said.

Valerian said he would send a team to pick Raynor up while Kerrigan warned Valerian to not screw up Raynor’s rescue since the scenario was digging up a certain painful memory for her.

Kerrigan, Sweetie and Lyra boarded Raynor’s ship and fled the facility.

Unfortunately, the Dominion anticipated their actions and attacked the Hyperion, leaving Raynor without an escape route.

The door next to him exploded. Walking into the corridor was Nova. Raynor was mildly surprised to see her at the moment.

“Well well, Jim Raynor. A pity you’re not Sweetie Drops. I have a score to settle with her. I suppose you’ll do for now.”

“Alright, Blondie, take your shot!”

Swarm: Broodmother

Sweetie, Lyra and Kerrigan successfully evaded Dominion pursuit and boarded Raynor’s dropship. Kerrigan, who was piloting the ship, engaged the jump drive and headed to where she and the crew of the Hyperion agreed to rendezvous.

The ship arrived at the rendezvous point after the Hyperion and docked in one of the Battlecruiser’s hangars. Once the ship landed and the engines deactivated, Kerrigan, Sweetie and Lyra disembarked and proceeded to the bridge, Kerrigan being more eager in her steps since she wanted to make sure Raynor was safe.

The bridge had a slightly different atmosphere than usual given the presence of the Umojan Marines.

Kerrigan looked around to find Raynor but couldn’t see him anywhere. Kerrigan’s anger grew as her sense of dread grew. She saw Matt and demanded to know where Raynor was. Valerian, who knew that Kerrigan was going to very cross with him, walked over to Kerrigan to give her the bad news.

Kerrigan didn’t take the news well as she began to use her psionic powers to strangle Valerian. Her fury was fueled by the memory of Arcturus abandoning her while associating Valerian with his father. The Umojans moved to protect the prince but ended up caught in Kerrigan’s telekinetic grip.

Sweetie calmly walked over to Kerrigan and spoke gently, “We’ll get him back, Kerrigan. And as much we both hate Arcturus, you more than me, I’d rather keep Valerian around because once Arcturus is dead, the Dominion will need someone to look up to and it’ll be a huge pain in the ass for humanity to scour the sector for someone who won’t just become another Arcturus.”

Out of respect toward the one person, or Pony, that she considered a friend, she let go of Valerian and the Umojan guards.

Suddenly, a fleet of Dominion Battlecruisers appeared around them and forced the Hyperion into a combat situation. Matt was preparing to have the Hyperion jump out of the area, but Kerrigan wanted to wait to see if Raynor would show up. The differences of opinion led Kerrigan to simply leave the bridge and head back to the hangar.

Sweetie prepared to follow Kerrigan to the hangar before she looked at Lyra who was planning on following her. “Lyra, I need you to stay with the Hyperion. If the Dominion end up infiltrating the ship, they’ll need you to help repel them.”

“What? But Bonnie--” Lyra said out of concern.

“No buts. Where I’m going you can’t follow. I already told you my plans in confidence. I need you to make sure these guys survive this war against Mengsk until the end.”

Lyra was hesitant to see Sweetie go. After a few seconds of suppressing her internal turmoil, Lyra relented. She was sad to see her leave, but she had hope that they would see each other again and that the Zerg wouldn’t try to eat her alive.

Sweetie joined Kerrigan aboard Raynor’s dropship and left the hangar just before the Hyperion jumped to an unknown location, the Dominion in pursuit.

Kerrigan flew the ship to a nearby planet in her attempt to find Raynor. While she wouldn’t admit it openly, Kerrigan was grateful that Sweetie chose to help her in her mission to find Raynor and kill Mengsk.

Matt gave Kerrigan one last warning before the Hyperion was out of communication range about the Dominion having sent troops to the planet.

Kerrigan had the ship run a scan of the area where she was planning to land and found the Dominion base along with an old hive cluster. The Dominion had a massive cannon nearly operational. Kerrigan was concerned that the cannon might take Raynor out if he came to the planet.

Kerrigan resolved to head to the hive cluster to build an army to take out the Dominion.

The ship landed near the hive cluster and Sweetie and Kerrigan entered the ship’s hold. The two could sense another presence in the room with them which made Kerrigan anxious. Sweetie recognized the presence and assured her that the presence was not a threat.

To help alleviate Kerrigan’s concerns, Sweetie ordered the presence to reveal themselves. A lone infested human, Ariel Hanson, stepped out of the shadows to reveal herself to her. Kerrigan looked at Sweetie and raised an eyebrow before Sweetie explained Hanson’s situation.

Sweetie and Kerrigan disembarked and left Hanson in the hold for her own protection. Both could tell that the Zerg weren’t feral so Kerrigan telepathically reached out to whoever was controlling the hive cluster, “I can sense a mind controlling this Brood. Who are you?”

“My queen, I am Naktul, a Broodmother. You created us to extend your control of the Swarm. Have you returned to us? And who is the one who accompanies you?”

“I’m not your queen and I haven’t returned. The one you ask about is my friend, Sweetie Drops. You will treat her with the same respect as you give me. I need your Brood to destroy the Terran cannon, right now.”

“Most of my brood is with me. I can send them to you, but it will take time... ”

“Then send them. When they arrive, we’ll tear down that cannon before Jim gets here. Meanwhile, I’m going to prepare this hive for combat. The Dominion would have tracked my ship and they’ll be looking for me.”

The psychic transmission ended and Kerrigan began to coordinate the hive cluster. Sweetie walked up to Kerrigan. “Broodmothers, huh? I take it they’re the next generation Cerebrates?”

“In function, yes. But I made these to be capable of self-defense and capable of independent thinking.” Kerrigan gave a smirk. “You didn’t think I was twiddling my thumbs when the threat of Amon was real, did you?” Sweetie returned the smirk.

Sweetie decided to move out on her own while Kerrigan prepared the hive cluster. Spotting a few Marines standing around, she pulled out her rifle and put a bullet in each of their heads before they realized they were under attack.

Naktul mentally spoke again, “When the Dominion arrived, some of my Brood went into caves.They will rejoin us if we can kill the Terran soldiers guarding the cave entrances.”

At the same time, a Dominion patrol checked on the hive cluster and discovered Kerrigan before reporting her location. Heavy attacks were anticipated in the future.

Sweetie discovered one of the caves nearby guarded by a Bunker while a Marine and Firebat harassed the Zerg in the cave. Sweetie charged up a Psionic Lash and obliterated the Bunker while burying the Marines in the remains of the structure. A few headshots put them out of their misery before she did the same to the duo harassing the Zerg in the cave, freeing some Zerglings and a Swarm Queen.

Kerrigan continued luring Dominion to her while Sweetie took advantage of the lack of detection to pick off Dominion camps.

Sweetie discovered an interesting feature with the new model of Hellions: the ability to transform into light combat walkers that appear to have greater offensive and defensive capabilities at the cost of the speed from their previous form.

Naktul informed the two of more cavernous holdouts being guarded by the Dominion. Sweetie dealt with the Dominion harassment teams and released more Zerg from their natural prisons.

Sweetie’s antics had weakened the strength of the Dominion attack waves enough for Kerrigan to send Zerglings and Queens in to assist Sweetie.

It wasn’t long before all Dominion except the force near the cannon were destroyed.

Sweetie moved in to the base near the cannon to check out the defenses there and, much to Sweetie’s disappointment, there were no Missile Turrets, Ravens or Science Vessels anywhere in the base. Sweetie had assumed that any Dominion force would at least consider the possibility of facing invisible enemies.

Sweetie would make the Dominion pay dearly for their oversight of such a detail. She demolished structures and decimated the defenders with her Mindblast and Psionic Lash. She also killed a number of infantry by shooting them point blank in the face without them even realizing it.

The Dominion were spooked and started firing randomly which only resulted in deaths by friendly fire. Sweetie picked off whomever was left.

By the time Naktul’s Brood arrived, Sweetie was already unleashing her psionic power on the cannon. Naktul assisted in its destruction even if she hardly contributed.

Naktul couldn’t get enjoyment out of the destruction because she had nearly nothing to do with it. Kerrigan ordered the fleeing Dominion to be eliminated. Naktul could at least take pleasure in such a command, believing that the Queen of Blades had returned.

Realizing what she just said, Kerrigan fled back to her ship in shame of relapsing. Sweetie chased after her and made it to the ship in time before Kerrigan took off.

In the cockpit, Kerrigan tried desperately to find Raynor on any radio frequency but had no luck. Sweetie sadly shook her head.

Suddenly, a Zergling walked into the cockpit. Kerrigan pointed her gun at it while Sweetie simply watched the spectacle.

The news came on with a sudden announcement that Jim Raynor was captured in a raid before he was interrogated and then executed. Mengsk made a speech to gloat about his victory over his enemies which made Kerrigan visibly furious. Sweetie decided to step in.

“I see Arcturus is still manipulating the media despite that scandal we revealed to the public.”

“Huh?” Kerrigan asked.

“Think about it; Raynor is a popular figure among the colonies. They see him as a heroic figure while thanks to that scandal, Mengsk has a very low approval rating. If the Dominion had killed him, the colonies would be outraged and start their own rebellion which would give Mengsk no end to headaches. If he tried to wipe out those rebels, public opinion would end up viewing Arcturus as a monster and the people would do what they could to flee from his regime, likely to the Umojan Protectorate for protection. It’s a slippery slope when you don’t deal with a charismatic figure like Raynor correctly.

“Mengsk knows this so in the likely case, Jim is probably captured and Mengsk will likely use him as a hostage to make sure you leave him alone. You and I both know that you are the one thing in the universe that he fears the most.”

“So you believe that Jim is still alive?”

Sweetie gently put a hand on Kerrigan’s shoulder. “Positive. For now, we need an army. We need to rebuild the Swarm and take this war to Arcturus so we can finally end him. We will save Jim along the way.”

Kerrigan smiled and wiped away the tears she shed. She sat in the pilot’s chair again and set the ship on a course for Zerg-controlled space.

Swarm: Communication Blackout

Raynor’s ship safely arrived in the Zerg-controlled portion of the Koprulu sector. Kerrigan began flying the ship around the zone to find some Zerg or better yet, a place to set up a command position.

During this time, Kerrigan decided that she wanted an answer to a question that had been plaguing her for years. “Can you tell me how you have been able to override my control of Zerg? I have tried to peer into your mind at times but was never able to find the answer.”

Since Kerrigan’s mind was no longer twisted, Sweetie had no reservations against answering her question. She explained the Overmind parasite that infected her during the Overmind’s death throes. She also explained the command structure of the Zerg always put the Overmind at the top of the Zerg chain of command. Sweetie had taken advantage of that trait to steal control of Zerg from her. She also explained that the Overmind had taught her everything she knew about the Zerg and was taught how to control Zerg using her psionic power through its command signature.

“I see…” Kerrigan said. “Did it also help you to predict my actions during the Brood War?”

“Nope. That was all me.”

Kerrigan blinked for a moment then laughed. “You really are a dangerous foe, Sweetie.”

After an hour of travelling through the vastness of space, the ship came across a lone Leviathan. Kerrigan saw an opportunity to claim a place to command the Swarm from and flew the ship into one of the orifices of the gargantuan creature.

As the ship was landing, a number of Zerglings fled the landing zone to avoid getting squished by the landing gear.

Kerrigan and Sweetie emerged from the ship, the adjutant aboard the ship needlessly warning of Zerg organisms. “That’s why I’m here. They’ll either accept me as their Queen, or I’ll start killing them one-by-one until they do,” Kerrigan responded.

The Zerglings around her were apprehensive before Kerrigan asserted her authority on them.

A sphincter opened up behind the Zerglings before an unusual creature emerged from the ceiling. The creature appeared to be attached to the inner workings of the Leviathan. By shape, the creature appeared feminine. Her body was layered in chitin. While she appeared to have arms that she always kept at her midsection, any movement of extremities came from the thick, armored tendrils that grew from the top of her head. Each tendril had one long claw at the end.

“What are you?” Kerrigan asked.

“I am Izsha. Your Majesty used to store all her ideas, thoughts and plans within me. Do you not remember?”

“Yes...I do remember you. More importantly, you remember me.” Kerrigan used her psionic power to assert her position upon Izsha.

“You are the Queen of Blades. I obey.”

Kerrigan ordered Izsha to summon the Swarm to move against Korhal, but the Swarm would not obey. Out of their own self-preservation, the Broodmothers disbanded from the Swarm to create their own Swarm under their direction. Kerrigan had her work cut out for her if she planned to unite the Swarm against Korhal.

“My Queen, who are these two who follow you?” Izsha asked, pointing a tentacle at Sweetie and Hanson.

“The Pony is Sweetie Drops. Any respect you have toward me is given to her as well. The infested one is Sweetie’s servant, Ariel Hanson. You will refer to her in whatever manner that Sweetie says.”

“Just call her Ariel,” Sweetie says.

“As you wish, my Queens.”

Izsha’s address made Sweetie’s muscles tense a little. She was uncomfortable with being referred to as a Queen, though she had a feeling that she may have to get used to it if she was going to be walking among the Zerg.

Hanson was looking all around her in awe as she was standing inside a Zerg organism designed for mass transport. She suspected that the Leviathan was the Zerg version of a capital ship. Just the inside of the creature alone would be worth years of study.

Izsha told everyone that Broodmother Nafash was assigned to the nearby moon of Kaldir to find essence that would help the Zerg survive extreme cold. With the Swarm dividing, Nafash intended to create a Brood that specialized in cold environments like the arctic moon of Kaldir.

Kerrigan had the Leviathan set course for the nearby ice moon.

Izsha sent scouts to check the status of Nafash and found her hive cluster had been abandoned. Kerrigan suspected that Nafash hid herself in some ice valleys where she noticed a Protoss encampment.

Suddenly, Sweetie received a psychic transmission from somewhere in the Protoss camp. “I can sense your presence, friend Sweetie Drops. I am Lasarra, an expedition scientist. My people need your help! The Tal’darim have invaded our expedition and are planning on executing everyone. Please, save us!”

Kerrigan didn’t pick up on the transmission but recognized the behavior of one who was receiving a psychic transmission and asked, “What did you find out?”

“The situation on Kaldir just got complicated. The Tal’darim are attacking the Protoss expedition here. We need Nafash’s Brood back into the fold and the Tal’darim have likely picked up on our presence at this point. Lyra told me about them and their infamous Death Fleet. We’re in trouble if they show up.”

Kerrigan considered her options. If they left now, they would get away before the Death Fleet arrived. But they would also be left without a Brood. If they went to the moon’s surface to reclaim Nafash’s Brood, they would need to make sure word of their actions never make it to Slayn.

In the end, Kerrigan decided to take the risk.

Sweetie looked at Kerrigan with concern, “Are you sure we’re equipped to handle the extreme cold of Kaldir?”

Kerrigan looked at her as if she had grown another head. “Did no one tell you about how the Hostile Environment Suits work? They have built in temperature regulators. They were built for Volcanic locations like Char and Arctic locations like Kaldir. You’ve been wearing it the whole time and you didn’t notice how the environment barely affected you?”

Sweetie blushed, “I...forgot that part. Been so focused on missions that I never paid attention.”

Izsha interrupted the two to inform them of something, “My Queens before you go, perhaps you may wish to visit the evolution pit to evolve and upgrade your Swarm. The creature, Abathur can help you.”

Kerrigan decided to take Izsha up on her suggestion and went to the evolution pit to see this Abathur. Sweetie followed.

Once inside the pit, Kerrigan and Sweetie were greeted by an odd creature that was mainly dark grey in color and had many thin limbs: some had three-clawed hands, some ended in green-glowing, bulbous sacs, smaller ones had a single claw, larger ones ended in a scythe-like claw. The creature had an enormous head adorned in green pustules, had four eyes and a maw that Sweetie was unable to tell if it was a mouth or something to assist its functions.

Kerrigan asked Abathur what it was.

“Abathur. Evolve Swarm, spin strands and sequences. Served Overmind, then served Queen of Blades. Now serve you two.”

While Kerrigan claimed that she was the Queen of Blades, Abathur countered that she and the Queen of Blades were very different by stating the Queen of Blades was more efficient and had ancient Zerg qualities with as little Terran influence as possible. Her current form was highly inefficient with poorly designed grasper limbs.

Abathur looked at Sweetie. “Examining strands of Sweetie Drops. Mix of Terran and species unfounded by Swarm. Abnormality detected, energy source within, cannot identify. Never encountered. Detected essence of original Overmind. Closer examination necessary.”

Abathur reached toward Sweetie to examine her further but Kerrigan stopped him by mentally forcing him back.

Abathur returned to explaining his duties, “Only focus is evolving the Swarm. Seek perfection in all things. Work in evolution pit. Can review my work here. Start with Zergling.”

Abathur gave Kerrigan a choice of three mutations for the Zergling: a hardened carapace, overloaded adrenal glands, or a boost to metabolism for improved movement. Kerrigan chose the adrenal glands.

On the frozen surface of Kaldir a lone sac crashed. Kerrigan, Sweetie and a few Zerglings emerged from the remains.

Izsha warned the two about flash freeze storms that would cause everything without the proper adaptations to instantly freeze. Once the storm passed, thermal energy from Zerg bodies and Hostile Environment Suits would be able to thaw the ice quickly.

Kerrigan sensed indigenous creatures nearby that appeared resistant to the cold.

The group moved onward in pursuit of the Ursadon Matriarch that would have the necessary essence to help them.

An Ursadon jumped the group. Sweetie acted quickly and shot it a few times into its thick skull.

A frozen Roach was recovered by Kerrigan. When it thawed, it buried itself to recover, then it resurfaced to continue. The odd thing was that the Roach was feral. When another feral Roach was found, Kerrigan suspected something may have happened to Nafash.

Izsha warned of an imminent freeze storm.

Moments later, Sweetie found herself trapped in ice as the frigid winds dropped her body temperature to near nothing. She watched helplessly from her icy prison as a trio of Ursadon bashed through a wall of ice. One was larger than the others which told her that the big one was the Matriarch they were seeking.

Conveniently, the flash freeze storm subsided and she felt her body heat up again, giving Sweetie the strength to break free. She shivered for a moment before she felt well enough to fight again.

Sweetie hit the Matriarch with a Psionic Lash while Kerrigan hit it with a Kinetic Blast. The combined power caused the beast to explode. The underlings were easy prey for the Zerg.

The Zerglings quickly feasted on the remains of the Ursadon Matriarch which gave Abathur access to the essence. He quickly used the essence to create a resistance to the freezing effects of the weather for the Zerg.

While Sweetie knew that the Zerg would resist the storms now, she was more concerned about how she and Kerrigan would survive.

~The ability to use essence has not been taken from Kerrigan. And as long as my essence remains within you, you will endure the cold as well as Kerrigan shall.”~

Sweetie was relieved that she wouldn’t end up a frozen treat for the Ursadon anytime soon.

The way was clear to Nafash’s frozen hive cluster. Once they arrived, Kerrigan awakened the hive cluster and gave them access to the Ursadon essence.

The Tal’darim sensed the awakening and addressed the interlopers. “The Queen of Blades and the concubine of First Ascendant Lyra. Neither of you appear strong. In fact, I can sense that the Queen of Blades’ powers have greatly diminished. You will be easy prey. Just in case, We will make use of this expedition’s Psi-Link Spires and contact Slayn. The Death Fleet will be your end!”

“Izsha, tell me the Protoss are out of range of Slayn,” Kerrigan inquired.

“They are, my Queen. However, their communications will be amplified by the Psi-Link Spires,”

“Then we destroy the Spires before the Protoss can activate them.”

Abathur alerted Kerrigan and Sweetie to additional Ursadon Matriarchs nearby that bear essence that could further improve their resistance to the cold.

While the Zerg set up their defenses, the Tal’darim decided to send a force of Zealots to hit them early. Luckily, a flash freeze storm hit at the right time and froze the black-armored Protoss solid. Sweetie fired an EM round that disabled their shields while Zerglings and Roaches assaulted their vulnerable forms.

Capitalizing on the weather, Kerrigan, Sweetie and the Zerg forces attacked the nearest Protoss camp. Sweetie felt bad destroying buildings that belonged to the expedition, but with the Tal’darim using them, she couldn’t afford to hold back.

They focused on the frozen troops first then demolished the buildings so the Tal’darim couldn’t use them. The nearby Spire was the last target in the immediate area. The powerful assault soon toppled the first Spire.

After getting a Hatchery built near some Minerals, More Roaches, Zerglings and Swarm Queens were morphed to bolster the attack force.

More Ursadon were sensed in the nearby canyon. The large group moved into the canyon to engage the Ursadon and their Matriarch. Once again, Kerrigan and Sweetie caused the creature to explode with their psionic power. Zerg minions proceeded to eat the corpse and gain her essence. Abathur was able to increase everyone’s visibility during a flash freeze.

The Zerg once again took advantage of the weather to eliminate a nearby gathering of Tal’darim. It was there that Kerrigan and Sweetie discovered the eviscerated corpse of a Broodmother: Nafash. Kerrigan decided that she would avenge the fallen Broodmother by wiping out the Tal’darim.

The Zerg pushed into a moderately defended base during a storm and eliminated the invading Protoss before tearing the base down after the storm ended. With the Spire defenseless, with the exception of troops being warped in to defend it, the Zerg quickly killed the defenders and leveled the second Spire.

Sweetie had time to think about something, For how long it was taking to destroy the Spires, she thought the Tal’darim would have contacted Slayn by now. The fact that they had not showed that the technology was less efficient than she thought or the storms were undoing the progress of their efforts. Of course, the issue could also be that they didn’t know how to operate the Spires and were slowly figuring it out.

The Swarm detoured into another canyon and killed the last Ursadon Matriarch in the area. The essence she provided allowed everyone to become immune to the cold weather; a feature she felt tempted to test in the frozen wastelands north of Equestria one day.

With a massive force gathered, the Zerg pushed into the final, heavily defended base that was guarding the last Psi-Link Spire. The base was guarded by Scouts, and what appeared to be Immortals, Colossi and other Tal’darim infantry.

Using the weather, the dangers of the base were easily dealt with before they thawed.

The Zerg toppled the last of the Spires and forced the Tal’darim to retreat for the time being.

Author's Note

Hope you enjoy the slight alterations I made to the Kaldir missions.

Swarm: Intercepted Message

“A concubine?! That’s what the Tal’darim think of me?” Sweetie said with an increasingly angry tone. Kerrigan did what she could to calm the furious Pony down. After an hour of venting, Sweetie was able to think straight again.

Sweetie and Kerrigan had destroyed the Psi-Link Spires that originally belonged to the Protoss expedition. While she felt bad about destroying the equipment of the Daelaam expedition, Sweetie couldn’t afford restraint when dealing with the Tal’darim.

Some members of the expedition were held in a nearby cave near the base. When they sensed that the fighting had ended, one of the members was brave enough to exit the cave to find Sweetie and Kerrigan.

The moment she saw the former Queen of Blades, she took a defensive stance in a futile effort to defend herself.

Sweetie walked up to the nervous Protoss, “En Taro Adun. I know what this looks like, but I can assure you that I’m taking responsibility for her actions for the time being. I’ll make sure she doesn’t cause trouble for your people.”

The female Protoss looked at the two warily for a few minutes before she finally relaxed. She said in a wary tone, “En Taro Lyra. I am Lasarra, a scientist of the Khalai caste. Why are you here with the Queen of Blades?”

While she was curious about her marefriend’s name being uttered in one of their salutations, Sweetie decided to hold off on that topic for another time. “Originally, we simply came here to reclaim the Brood stationed here for Kerrigan’s eventual invasion of Korhal. Our mission was complicated when the Tal’darim showed up to attack us and they planned to use your Spires to contact Slayn. In response we had to level your camp since they were using your equipment against us.”

Lasarra mentally sighed, which was still a regular sigh. “The equipment can be replaced, but the Tal’darim still have control over the rest of our camps. They underestimated the Zerg here, they will not make that same mistake. They will likely steal our Shuttles and try to escape to Slayn to warn their people of Kerrigan’s weakened state.”

Sweetie hummed, “If what Lyra said about the Tal’darim is accurate, any who flee from a battle would be executed after they deliver any potentially useful intel. Since Kerrigan is seen by their master as a threat, Slayn will likely send their Death Fleet.”

“If they do, maybe we can find some way to bring the Golden Armada…”

“No, I know the nature of your race. All that would happen is a battle between two fleets with a high chance of Kerrigan getting killed. The future of your race depends on her staying alive.

“Now, since I would like to avoid any surprises, is there anything the Tal’darim can use to escape the moon aside from the shuttles?”

Lasarra thought for a moment. “Well, there is the Ark Ship that our people used to travel here.”

After Lasarra explained the functions of the Ark Ship, Sweetie came up with an idea that might wipe out the entire Tal’darim force. “Sarah, you know of a way you can sneak your Zerg on board the Ark?”

“I can infect someone with a parasitic larva which I can create a Broodmother.”

“Good, find an inconspicuous creature and infect it. We need to sneak the infected creature inside and hope that that will be enough to wipe out the Tal’darim.”

Kerrigan ordered her minions to capture an appropriate creature and bring it to her. Meanwhile, Sweetie asked Lasarra if there were anymore members of her team still under threat from the Tal’darim.

“No, the entire team was left in the caves behind us they were planning to execute us just before the Zerg attacked the area.”

After Kerrigan infected a Lyote and smuggled it aboard the Ark, Sweetie and Kerrigan returned to the Leviathan to plan their next attack.

After having conversations and monologues in the command chamber of the Leviathan, Kerrigan and Sweetie visited Abathur.

Some tortured cries were heard from somewhere. Abathur mentioned that his failed experiments were being converted into biomass for later. While Kerrigan and Sweetie were concerned about the treatment of the Zerg as they died a slow painful death, Abathur revealed his logical nature and lack of empathy or compassion by claiming that killing the failed experiments were a waste of time since they were going to die soon anyway.

Kerrigan’s anger slowly rose toward the evolution master. Abathur tried to calm her by saying that he was not a threat to her, after a brief analysis of what anger is.

After Kerrigan chose a mutation for the Roaches, she retreated to her personal chamber to see if her abilities needed adjustment. Sweetie waited patiently for her return.

During the wait, Sweetie considered her dwindling supply of Lockdown missiles. When she saw Kerrigan throw psionic lightning from her palms, she began trying to recreate that power. After some practice, she was able to produce psionic lightning in her hands. Next, she took one of her Lockdown rockets and disassembled it with her telekinesis. Locating the power source, she held it in a tight grip so her body could get a feel for the level of charge needed to use her psionic power to imitate the Lockdown effect. She used all of her remaining rounds to fully adapt and the process was very painful. Once she had adapted to the charge, she did the same for her EM rounds.

Once Kerrigan returned, the duo returned to the surface to set up a hive cluster near the oddly distant Warp Conduits south of the Tal’darim-held Shuttle Bays.

By the time Kerrigan and Sweetie had arrived, the Tal’darim were already sending commandeered Shuttles to the Warp Conduits. One Shuttle was already near the Conduit warping out. Sweetie stopped the process by focusing her psionic lightning at the same frequency as her Lockdown rockets and managed to temporarily shut down the Shuttle. Its anti-gravity systems remained functional so it didn’t fall out of the sky.

Kerrigan took control of some nearby Hydralisks and had Abathur reclaim the Hydralisk essence for the Swarm.

While the ship was locked down, Kerrigan, Sweetie and the Hydralisks fired on the Shuttle. Sweetie pointed a finger at the Shuttle and launched a psionic bolt powerful enough to disable the Shuttle’s shields. The Shuttle fell apart quickly.

The hive cluster started morphing Hydralisks to assist in the destruction of Shuttles. Sweetie had another Hatchery morphed to increase the number of Larvae to mutate. Swarm Queens and Hydralisks accompanied Kerrigan on her Shuttle hunt.

Sweetie, however, had a different idea. Spotting a nearby frozen hive cluster guarded by Tal’darim Zealots, she took out the Zealots and revived the hive cluster. Once the place was set up defensively, Sweetie morphed a large number of each type of Zerg available and moved against the Tal’darim base while Kerrigan continued on the defensive, sinking two waves of Shuttles by this point.

While Sweetie was pushing against the Tal’darim, she also ordered more Zerg morphed to reinforce her numbers. Kerrigan noticed Sweetie’s strategy and morphed some Zerg from her hive cluster to assist in the attack.

While Sweetie figured that she could have dealt with the Shuttles without wrecking the bases, she also didn’t want to risk the Tal’darim rallying a large force that would pose a threat to her and Kerrigan.

Sweetie weakened the Tal’darim by using her new EM Blast attack and her Lockdown ability, which now used her own power instead of firing rockets. Protoss who had their shields disabled were shot in the head by her rifle.

The number of Zerg were characteristically overwhelming for the Tal’darim and they soon tore into one of the Shuttle Bays, limiting the deployment angles of the Shuttles.

Once one base was destroyed, Sweetie moved on to another base while reinforcements rallied with her. It wasn’t long before the second Shuttle Bay was demolished as well as the third.

With the Warp Conduits lost to them and their forces now ill equipped to handle the Zerg, the Tal’darim retreated to the stolen Ark Ship and prepared to launch.

Swarm: Going Dark

Sweetie and Kerrigan returned to the colonists to report that the Tal’darim were preparing to flee Kaldir. Lasarra was the only one that they saw outside of the caves.

“How come the others haven’t left the cave yet?” Sweetie asked.

“They seek to remain until you have finished your business on Kaldir. Our leader has appointed me as a liaison for them. When do you plan to leave?”

“Once the rest of the Tal’darim expeditionary force is wiped out on the Ark Ship, we will leave you be.” Sweetie then looked at Kerrigan, “Right, Kerrigan?”

Kerrigan narrowed her eyes at Lasarra, “How do I know that you won’t try to call your Golden Armada once we leave you alone?”

Sweetie hummed because Kerrigan did raise a good point. “She does have a point. We need to be sure that you don’t tell Shakuras about our activities. While our targets will be primarily Dominion from here onward, we don’t want to add you Protoss on our list of enemies to deal with. Bring your leader out here. I want him to take responsibility for his colonists.”

“Very well,” Lasarra said. She walked into the cave and came back a few minutes later with a High Templar that didn’t have any distinguishing features that set him apart from other High Templar.

“What would you have me do in exchange for sparing our lives?” he asked.

Sweetie named the terms, “When you return to Shakuras, you will tell them that the Tal’darim arrived. You and your people went into hiding in a shelter where they couldn’t sense you. They pillaged your weapons and equipment and left in your Ark Ship. I want no news of our presence on Kaldir to make it to Shakuras. I know there are still a number among your race that don’t understand the importance of Kerrigan surviving to save your future. You will swear on your honor that you will tell them the story I gave you.”

The expedition leader blinked. Such a simple request for the lives of his people came as a surprise to him. Since Kerrigan was showing no signs of objecting, he was almost relieved. While a Protoss’ honor is everything to them, he felt comfortable making such an agreement. “Very well, on my honor and the honor of my colony, your story shall be the only story here that shall reach the people of Shakuras.”

“Good, return to your people. Once our infiltrator has eliminated the rest of the Tal’darim, we will be leaving.”

Lasarra and the expedition leader returned to the cave while Sweetie and Kerrigan returned to the Leviathan.

Izsha noticed the inner pain that Kerrigan felt. When she asked about it, Kerrigan merely mentioned that she had a friend that she missed deeply. She wished she knew where he was.

Feeling wistful, Kerrigan retreated to her chamber to get her feelings under control and check out the new abilities that she had unlocked, according to Izsha.

Meanwhile, Sweetie paid a visit to Abathur’s evolution pit. Abathur crawled out of his hole to announce some new findings, “New discovery. Large scale improvement to Zergling sequences.”

“What kind of improvement?” Sweetie asked.

“Answer complex. Can branch evolution of fully evolved Zergling, form two new strains.”

~”The two Zergling strains are altered on too large of a scale for both to co-exist within the Swarm. One must be chosen.”~

“Overmind correct. One must be chosen. Other must be discarded.”

“I see. Well, it’s still Kerrigan’s decision. It’s her Swarm, not mine,” Sweetie said.

Kerrigan walked into the evolution pit. She had heard the conversation through the hive mind. “Make some of each; I want to see them in action.”

“Will set up tests for both. Speak to begin.”

“Before we begin, I want to look into your memories and find out why I feel so angry when I see you.”

Abathur tried to claim that his memories were not important but Kerrigan saw them anyway; how he was the one who designed her into the Queen of Blades. When he tried to explain himself, Kerrigan struck him with her psionic power but stopped at that because he was still needed for her plans.

Once ready, the duo gave Abathur the go-ahead to begin. Their visions were projected to a different planet that Abathur called Calus. The Dominion set up an outpost in the cliffs above the valley and were unreachable. The indigenous Karak, who could scale cliffs with their strong legs were targeted by some of Abathur’s Zerglings. Once dead, the Zerglings feasted on the Karak. With the new essence, the Zerglings were slightly bigger and had large insect wings that were as long as they were. Abathur called them the Raptor Strain. Abathur sent more of the new Zerglings and the swarm overwhelmed the Dominion with their numbers.

The next demonstration was on the planet Astrid III. The Hatcheries on that world evolved to be able to morph Zerglings very fast. Kerrigan took control of the hive cluster while Abathur integrated the Zerg into the Swarm to allow the creation of Swarmling Strain Zerglings. This variant had a large dorsal fin while being able to morph triplets from a single Larva.

A Dominion Force approached the hive cluster but were quickly overwhelmed by a sudden surge of Zerglings. The new Zerglings quickly gathered by the hundreds and quickly overpowered the Dominion base.

The duo’s mental projections returned to their bodies.

Before them, a pair of Zerglings approached them. One was a Raptor Strain the other was a Swarmling Strain.

Kerrigan considered her choice carefully. After a few minutes of deliberation, Kerrigan finally chose the Raptor Strain.

The time had come to finish their business on Kaldir. Kerrigan and Sweetie projected their vision on the Lyote that snuck aboard the Ark Ship. Until now, the creature had been hiding in the shadows.

Once Kerrigan alerted the parasite within it that the time had come to emerge, the creature feasted on the Lyote’s internal organs and burst from the host’s chest.

Kerrigan continued communicating with the Larva, “Listen carefully. This ship contains many dangers. Follow my commands and hide in the shadows. You must consume and grow. Infest this ship and kill every Protoss in black armor.”

The Larva ventured deeper into the ship and found a Lyote with a Tal’darim Zealot around the corner. The Larva invaded the beast’s body. The Lyote howled in pain.

The Zealot moved to investigate a noise but found nothing unusual. He moved ahead in the direction the Larva had come from. The Larva consumed the Lyote and moved into some nearby steam vents to hide from a Havoc, the Tal’darim version of a Sentry.

Once the Havoc passed, the Larva continued using the steam vents to hide as it moved forward.

A group of Zealots barred the way ahead and were next to an Ursadon. The Larva jumped into the beast and made it smash the Zealots, Havocs and whomever the Larva had snuck past.

Once safe, the Larva consumed the Ursadon from within. It used the nearby ventilation tunnel to find a safe place to grow into a Broodmother. Kerrigan named her Niadra.

Niadra spawned a few Zerglings and broke through the nearby door.

On the other side was a menagerie for her and her Zerglings to devour. Zealots, Stalkers and Havocs who were guarding the room were quickly torn apart before Niadra had her fill of beast flesh.

While such an act continued to make Sweetie uncomfortable, she continued to watch in hopes that she might be desensitized to the action.

A Probe tried building more Photon Cannons to defend from the Zerg before the Zerglings smashed everything.

A ventilation tunnel was broken into and traversed by the Zerglings since Niadra was too big to fit. Once the Zerglings emerged on the other side and smashed a force field generator, Niadra was free to move forward.

Niadra continued devouring beasts and slaying Protoss. She sensed a powerful energy nearby and Kerrigan informed her that it was their warp drive, their only means of propulsion. The Zerglings broke through the defenses to allow Niadra inside so she could personally destroy the warp drive.

Once destroyed, the engines were destabilized and set to explode. In her attempt to escape, A Stalker and an Ascendant, the Tal’darim equivalent of a High Templar, tried to bar their way. The Zerglings tried to kill the Ascendant first but he launched a Psionic Orb that devastated the Zerglings. Niadra quickly spawned more Zerglings and finished off the Ascendant. The Stalker was destroyed soon after.

A group of Zealots and Havocs tried to stop Niadra but fared worse than the Ascendant.

Niadra escaped into a safe room to avoid the imminent explosion.

The compromised warp drive activated an emergency function within the ship which began awakening Daelaam warriors from stasis. Unfortunately, since Sweetie wasn’t there to explain the situation to them, there was no chance of sparing their lives.

After killing the unfortunate Protoss and consuming more beasts, Niadra grew even more and expanded control over her brood, giving her the ability to spawn Roaches.

Niadra’s trail of destruction continued as she killed beast and Protoss indiscriminately. She evolved even further to spawn Hydralisks.

Soon, Niadra reached the bridge and noticed the Tal’darim making a last stand against Niadra. The Tal’darim were not the kind to flee from their enemies so they didn’t even bother to use the escape pods. This made the task easier for the young Broodmother as her ability to endlessly produce Zerg would inevitably overwhelm and wipe out the Tal’darim.

Unfortunately for her, Niadra was no longer within range of Kerrigan’s and Sweetie’s telepathic communications. Without commands from her Queens, Niadra stuck to her mission of eliminating the Tal’darim.

Sweetie and Kerrigan lost all contact with Niadra once the warp drive was destroyed. With no way of knowing whether the young Broodmother completed her mission, they could only hope she did as the Swarm made plans to withdraw from Kaldir.

Swarm: Zagara

While Kerrigan and Sweetie did not see the events from beginning to end, knowing that Niadra destroyed the warp core of the Ark Ship was enough to reassure them that the ship was not going anywhere. Kerrigan had no doubt that Niadra had wiped out the Tal’darim.

Sweetie mentally told Lasarra that the deed was done and the Tal’darim would not make it to Slayn to report what had transpired and that they would be leaving Kaldir shortly.

Lasarra was relieved that her colony would at least survive the encounter. Though she still mourned the loss of the unfortunate Protoss who were aboard the ship at the time of Niadra’s rampage.

In the end, Lasarra thanked Sweetie and Kerrigan for sparing their lives and promised to not breathe a word of their involvement to Shakuras.

“How can you be sure that the Protoss won’t tell Shakuras?” Kerrigan asked.

“You should know that deceiving others outside of combat is considered dishonorable among the Protoss. They aren’t Terrans. With the story I gave them, they are telling the truth, they simply omit us. The Tal’darim did come, they did pillage their colony, and they left Kaldir.

“Besides, they also know my relation to Lyra. If they did anything that would put my life in danger, Lyra would hunt them down. And she would too. After spending over three years among the brutal Tal’darim, I have no doubt that she can be cruel when she needs to be.”

Kerrigan gave a slight smirk. “You Ponies are certainly full of surprises. Makes me think your world has plenty of useful essence.”

Sweetie frowned. “Perhaps, but I would rather keep my world as is.” Sweetie thought about something for a moment. “I just remembered, we did discuss a deal in exchange for my cooperation with your revenge plans.”

“Yes, we did. But you never told me what you wanted in exchange. What is it that you want?”

“I want my own Brood.”

With their business on Kaldir finished, the Leviathan turned away from the planet and moved to another world. Kerrigan had ordered Izsha to set course for the planet Char so she could reclaim the planet from the Dominion.

Kerrigan and Sweetie headed toward Abathur’s evolution pit because he had announced that he discovered some large-scale evolutions for the Roaches. After a lot of thinking about Sweetie’s request, Kerrigan was finally ready to respond. “You want to create your own Brood? I suppose it’s within your capabilities. But what would you do with it?”

“I’m not sure yet but I think that under the right guidance, they can do a lot of good.”

Izsha chimed in, “It is possible. The will of the Swarm is guided by their Queen. It becomes as she wishes.”

The rest of the walk to the evolution pit was uneventful.

In the evolution pit, Abathur emerged from his hole and waited eagerly for him to begin his presentation of the new Roach strains.

When they gave him the go-ahead, the two began to shift their vision toward the first of two testing locations, a concealed Protoss facility on planet Cantar. Abathur pointed out a species called a Scantipede that were known for being virulent parasites. The creature was captive in a biology research facility. A bunch of previously burrowed Roaches in the facility emerged and slew the guards before destroying the containment field generator for the Scantipede. The creature began attacking the guards to save itself.

The trait that was needed for the Swarm was the ability to plant parasites into the bodies of hosts which would explode from the host upon death.

Once the Roaches killed the creature, they devoured its corpse and acquired its traits. Once the essence was incorporated, the Roaches evolved into the Corpser Strain. The new Corpser Roaches attacked the rest of the Protoss within the facility, using the Roachlings that spawned from the corpses of Protoss and menagerie beasts alike. The demonstration ended once the facility staff were eliminated.

The next demonstration took place on planet Mehlus IV. Abathur used the Roaches in a microbe-filled pool to guide their evolution. The ones that survived formed a symbiotic bond with the microbes and evolved into a new strain, the Vile Roach. Abathur claimed that the acid saliva they produce could slow all forms of movement of their attackers. To Sweetie, this seemed like a combination of the old Queens’ Ensnare ability and the Devourers’ acid spores.

The Vile Roaches attacked the Protoss in the area. Their last words were complaints about their lagging attacks and sluggish movements.

Once the demonstration was over, Kerrigan was left with a choice. After some internal deliberation, she chose to let the Vile Strain represent the Swarm.

An hour later, Sweetie and Kerrigan felt the presence of Zeratul. When the Dark Templar approached the duo, Kerrigan prepared herself for a fight but Sweetie held out a hand to stop her.

“What brings you here, Zeratul?” Sweetie asked.

“I’m here to make sure you two are on the correct path,” Zeratul said.

~”Fear not, Zeratul. I shall guide them to the world that I was created upon. I wished to wait until Sweetie had discussed this with Kerrigan before I gave them the coordinates. However, the conflict between my consciousness and her’s begins to intensify. We must go to Zerus before it is too late.”~

Kerrigan and Zeratul were stunned by what they just heard: the Overmind just spoke through Sweetie. A moment later, Sweetie fought back and regained control of her body.

Zeratul was the first to speak, “The Overmind is controlling you?”

“Not quite, back during the Dominion invasion of Char, I had to take a huge gamble to prevent losing the Overmind’s knowledge and essence to the Xel’naga artifact. It involved it planting its consciousness and essence directly into my brain while the artifact destroyed the parasite.

“We have a plan to settle the issue I’m having with it and that involves going to Zerus. I was waiting for the Overmind to tell me the coordinates but it wanted to be sure that Kerrigan would seek the power of Zerus.”

“Hrmph...Apparently, it doesn’t know me as well as it believed. I have wanted the power for some time,” Kerrigan said.

“I see. As long as Sweetie is here to guide you, I know you will be on the correct path. I shall take my leave,” Zeratul said. With that, he vanished from the Leviathan and flew away on his Void Seeker ship.

After a minute of making sure Zeratul was gone, Kerrigan turned to Sweetie. “What is with the Protoss and thinking you’re my parole officer?”

Sweetie shrugged, “No idea. Could be that my reputation verses yours creates that illusion.”

Kerrigan sighed, “Anyway, I’d like to reclaim Char before we head to Zerus. Can your internal conflict wait until then?”

“I think so.”

“Good enough.” Kerrigan mentally communicated with Izsha, “Izsha, we’re going to Char. Send the Leviathan there.”

“At once, My Queen.”

In the time between the invasion and now, Warfield had built strong fortifications on a plateau. While Sweetie felt sorry for the old General, if he wouldn’t leave peacefully, she would have to deal with him, if at least to eliminate one of Mengsk’s pawns.

“So, who commands the remaining Zerg here?” Sweetie asked.

“One of the Broodmothers, Zagara, refuses to acknowledge either of you as her Queen.” Izsha said. “Before you can reclaim Char from the Terrans, you will need to bring her Brood back into the fold. Zagara’s Brood is currently huddled in Char’s acid marsh, where my Queen stored millions of eggs for future use. From the location of her hive cluster, it appears that she intends to gather as many eggs as she can. She intends to hatch them for her own by using a birthing pond.”

“Is there one such place for us to set up?”

“I have located one such place that will give us an equal chance as Zagara in obtaining the eggs.”

Kerrigan chimed in, “Sweetie, don’t steal control of her Zerg here. I want to prove to her that she stood no chance against us.” Sweetie shrugged in response.

“So, am I attacking or gathering?” Sweetie asked.

“Gathering. You had your fun with the Shuttle Bays, now it’s my turn. I will make sure she never leaves her hive cluster.”

While Kerrigan was morphing Zerg to help her prevent Zagara from leaving her hive cluster, Sweetie ran around the area grabbing eggs and giving them to Drones to put into the birthing pond. Zagara’s forces were all over the area and a number of Spore Crawlers were around to detect her presence.

Since Kerrigan didn’t want her using her control override on Zagara’s Swarm, Sweetie used her Psionic Lash to destroy any Spore Crawlers she saw then sniped the minions in their skulls.

With Kerrigan having progressively less difficulty thwarting Zagara’s attempts at the eggs and at the request of Izsha for some reason, Sweetie destroyed the Infested Command Centers in the area.

By the time Sweetie was halfway through the egg collecting, Kerrigan’s forces had grown overwhelming that she could have taken down Zagara’s hive cluster with what she had. Kerrigan had the same idea and waited for Sweetie to meet with her before they simply stormed Zagara’s hive cluster.

When Zagara’s hive cluster was decimated, the Broodmother emerged and yelled with an outraged tone, “You insult me by not even using the eggs you gathered?”

Sweetie chuckled, “So focused on eggs when you didn’t even realize that we were increasing our numbers without them. You’re not much of a Queen if you can’t even pay attention to all the necessary elements of the battlefield.

“It seems you still have much to learn if you want to lead anything, Zagara. So, I leave you with two options: die here or rejoin the Swarm and learn what it means to be a leader.”

Zagara growled in frustration. “How did I lose to a lowly Terran and...whatever you are…?” She paused for a moment. “The Zerg are led by force of will. Your wills are strongest so I shall serve you.”

Sweetie shrugged, “Good enough.”

Swarm: The Bone Trench

Kerrigan and Sweetie returned to the Leviathan with Zagara who had been forced into submission after being overpowered and outwitted by the duo. Kerrigan had a use for the ambitious Broodmother, but she never told Sweetie what that was.

“Tell me, Zagara, how would you drive the Terrans from this world?” Kerrigan asked.

“I would obliterate their fortress on the Dauntless Plateau. But the only way to reach it is through the Bone Trench. Ever since the Terrans, with the help of Sweetie and her Templar friend, destroyed our infested platform to control the skies and collapsed the Nydus network, our only option is over land.”

“I regret nothing,” Sweetie quipped.

“Neither losses concern me. Warfield has no idea what he’s up against,” Kerrigan said.

Sweetie glanced at her rifle, “No he does not…”

Zagara asked about the Xel’naga artifact and whether the Terrans still possess it. Kerrigan suspected that they might still have it but it wasn’t on Char.

“Last I saw it, Narud made off with it after Lyra and I confronted him about his identity. Chances are very likely that the artifact is in Mengsk’s possession right now.”

“If I know Arcturus, he’s probably got it set up in his office as some sort of last line of defense to keep me from him in case everything else failed him. He never was one to bet everything on others to protect him,” Kerrigan said.

Kerrigan had a talk with Izsha and Zagara separately, Since Zagara didn’t understand why she was defeated by her and Sweetie, she ended up being directed to Abathur for improvements.

When asked about the changes, Abathur claimed that he improved her muscle density and expanded her brain matter to make her a more cunning strategist. He was, however, concerned that Kerrigan wanted him to make the Broodmothers more independent which would pose a potential threat to her. Kerrigan wanted independent Broodmothers just in case something happened to her.

“Perhaps these Broodmothers would make for a good enough substitute to prevent the end times in case something happened to me.”

Sweetie thought about it for a moment before an unrelated thought crossed her mind. “When I imagine Broodmothers leading Broods, I can’t help but think about the Changelings from my home planet.”

Kerrigan looked at Sweetie strangely, “How do you know about Changelings?”

Sweetie returned Kerrigan’s look in kind, “How do you? The Changelings that I know are similar to myself in shape except with a smooth, black carapace and their hooves have holes in them. And they have sharp teeth like a Zerg.”

“Huh, different from mine which were produced from Overseers and they had a skinny upper body with long, thin arms, a small head and a shapeless blob of a lower body as well as a brief lifespan. I take it that your variety can shapeshift?”

“Eeyup. The Changelings of my world can live for at least as long as a Pony. And they operate under a similar structure as the Zerg: one Queen ruling a hive.”

“Fascinating. Equus Changeling essence, possible value to Swarm. Investigation necessary,” Abathur said.

“I highly recommend leaving matters of Equus to me, Abathur.” Sweetie said with a threatening tone. She turned back to Kerrigan, “So why haven’t I seen more of these Changelings of yours?”

“Their essence is tied to the Overseer essence which is currently lost somewhere. After I was restored to humanity, the accumulated essences of the Swarm were scattered across the Koprulu Sector.”

Nothing important was said afterward and Kerrigan and Sweetie left the evolution pit.

Once Kerrigan was ready to move against Warfield, the Swarm gathered at the entrance to the corpse landfill known as the Bone Trench.

According to Zagara, the Bone Trench was patrolled by massive, even by Battlecruiser standards, Gorgon Battlecruisers. The ships were fortified so that conventional Zerg attacks couldn’t damage them.

Kerrigan noticed a dormant nest that was designed to create Scourge. She could use the flying terrors to tear down a Gorgon Battlecruiser.

Once the Dominion took notice of the Zerg, Warfield deployed one of his Gorgons into the trench.

Warfield also sent a transmission to Sweetie’s communicator. <“Sweetie Drops, what are you doing? Why are you siding with Kerrigan against us?”>

“It’s simple, I need Kerrigan alive and she wants to kill your Emperor. I don’t plan to stop her because I hate him too. So, I side with her to make sure she doesn’t get herself killed. As for the ‘against you’ part, you’re free to flee the planet if you wish. Leave Char to the Zerg and we can prevent any unnecessary bloodshed.”

<”You know I can’t do that. Never thought we’d end up on opposing sides of the battlefield, but I have sworn to serve Emperor Mengsk, no matter what crimes he may have committed or how atrocious they were.”>

Sweetie sighed, “I’m sorry it’s come to this then. I hope there will be no hard feelings.” Sweetie ended the transmission and focused on the battle.

The hive cluster set up quickly and began mutating forces to use against the Dominion. During this time, the Gorgon crept closer and closer to the hive cluster. Since Creep Tumors were needed to awaken the Scourge Nests and they were already next to one, Kerrigan waited until the Gorgon was very close to the hive cluster before awakening the Nest.

While they waited for the first Gorgon to come, Swarm Queens provided support for the attack group. Sweetie used her Psionic Lash and Mindblast abilities to destroy Dominion attack groups while Kerrigan helped with her Kinetic Blast and Crushing Grip.

Once the first Gorgon was close enough, a Creep Tumor was planted next to a Scourge nest and the nest creature awakened. Numerous Scourge burst from the flesh of the creature and flew into the Gorgon and exploded. The explosions tore the Battlecruiser apart and caused it to crash into the ground.

With its progeny released, the Scourge Nest slumped over and stopped moving.

Once the Gorgon was destroyed, Warfield called another Gorgon into the area.

What struck Sweetie as weird was that while the Gorgon Battlecruisers were too large to fly through the area side by side, he could have let them fly in one behind the other. Another strange matter was that the Dominion were completely ignoring the Scourge Nests. If they eliminated the nests, she and Kerrigan would have been in big trouble from the Battlecruisers. In the end, she and Kerrigan were taking advantage of Warfield’s tactical blunders.

Sweetie took a group of Roaches and Banelings and scoured the area near the hive cluster for Dominion to limit their attack venue. Kerrigan moved ahead to secure areas to spread the Creep.

Swarm Queens sped the spread by planting Creep Tumors next to each other.

Once Sweetie finished securing the area around the hive cluster, it was about time to awaken another Scourge Nest and tear down another Gorgon. Gorgon number three was on its way.

The push into the trench was made even easier because Warfield made weak attempts to find and destroy the Creep Tumors. He hardly deployed any Ravens or Science Vessels into the Bone Trench.

During the attack, the Zerg had their numbers reinforced when a number of live Zerg emerged from the piles of corpses. Swarm Queens emerged from one pile and helped by planting Creep Tumors.

Kerrigan took the time to augment her power by collecting the essence from Defiler bones.

Kerrigan gathered a large group of Zerglings, Hydralisks and Roaches to prepare for an attack on the main base in the Trench. Sweetie took some of the Zerglings and built up a large number of Banelings. During this time, three more Gorgons had fallen to Scourge Nests.

Once ready, Kerrigan pushed into the main base first followed by the swarm of Banelings. With the main force covering the suicide bombers, the defenders melted into green puddles and the rest of the base fell soon after.

With the last of the Dominion defenses gone, Kerrigan awakened the last two Scourge Nests and annihilated the last two Gorgon Battlecruisers.

With the Gorgons totaled. Warfield knew that he had lost control of the Bone Trench and ordered a full retreat back to the Dauntless Plateau.

Sweetie gave a sad smile because she knew that she was going to have to deal with Warfield, whom she had respect toward, and she had the perfect weapon to wipe out his fortress.

Author's Note

"The warning has been given. Their fate is now their own."
-Medivh

Swarm: Nuclear Winter

Kerrigan and Sweetie returned to the Leviathan to prepare themselves for the operation that will liberate Char from the Dominion.

Kerrigan talked to Izsha and Zagara, the latter of whom was made to go see Abathur again when she still did not understand the concept of vision.

Out of what respect she had for the old soldier, Sweetie decided to have one last talk with Warfield before they began. Kerrigan questioned Sweetie about why she would bother with one of Mengsk’s Generals. To which she replied, “Our war is with Mengsk. His Generals only serve him out of some unfortunate sense of duty. While I have no intention of pulling my punches, he at least deserves one last chance to withdraw with his life. I gave Duke the same courtesy.”

Kerrigan scoffed, “Yeah, and you left me with a huge headache as a result.”

“I wouldn’t worry about that this time. I have a plan to make taking the fortress nearly effortless.”

“Oh? And what would that plan be?”

“You’ll see.” Sweetie gave a slight grin with a hint of sadness.

Sweetie reached for her communicator to get into contact with Warfield. “Come in, Warfield. This is Sweetie Drops.”

<”What do you want? I believe that we have already said what we wanted to say in the Bone Trench.”>

“I want to offer you one last chance to leave Char to the Zerg.”

<”Tell me you have something more important to say than your pointless offer. I said it before, I will never let Kerrigan take back Char.”>

Sweetie sighed, “Very well. We will give you three hours to evacuate all non-combat personnel and the sick or injured. Any who remain once the attack begins will be blood on your hands and your soul if you Terrans believe in that stuff.”

Warfield was silent for a minute before responding, <”My thanks for the offer. I will order a full evacuation of all NCP immediately.“> The transmission ended.

“You’re giving him three hours to prepare for our attack? Do you even realize how much harder you just made this?” Kerrigan asked irritably.

“Don’t worry about it. All we have to do is provoke him to use his nuclear arsenal and victory will be ours.”

“You better know what you’re doing…”

Kerrigan went to her chamber to unlock her new abilities while Sweetie had a talk with Abathur.

When the creature came out of his hole, Sweetie was curious about how Abathur manipulated genes. “Tell me about your work,” Sweetie said.

“Look at flesh, see only potential. Strands, sequences, twisting, separating, joining. See how it could be better. At flesh, splinter bone. Inside me, can touch it. Weave it. Spin it. Make it great.”

“But not perfect?”

“Never perfect. Perfection goal that changes. Never stops moving. Can chase, cannot catch.”

“And what potential do you see in me?”

“Unknown. Sample required for proper opinion. However, can see immense potential locked away.”

“So I guess the Terrazine wasn’t enough to unlock my full potential.”

“Psionic potential at zenith due to Terrazine. Limitations of current form prevent use of untapped power. Can be made better through genetic alterations.”

“We’ll see how that goes when we get to Zerus.”

Everyone was being forced to wait for the three hours that Sweetie allowed to Warfield. During this time everyone was becoming irritated in their own way. A good portion of that irritation was directed at Sweetie for making that deal. Sweetie was not about to defend herself on that matter since it would only make the others more angry.

Zagara’s anxiety was clearly showing as she began aimlessly moving around the command chamber of the Leviathan. Even the slightest sound would make her jerk her head in the direction the sound came from.

Izsha appeared calm but Sweetie began to think that the advisor was incapable of feeling anxiety or at least expressing it.

Kerrigan went to her personal chamber a few times to make sure she was fully prepared to fight Warfield.

The three hours were torture for everyone. When the time finally came to an end, the Swarm rallied at a hive cluster near Warfield’s fortress.

Once a large number of Zerg were morphed from a hive cluster in the Bone Trench, Kerrigan ordered the siege of Warfield’s fortress to begin..

“We’ve reached the Terran fortress. They’re dug-in and ready for us,” Kerrigan said. “There is no room for subtlety here. We will go after them wherever they are, and overwhelm them.”

Warfield ordered his nuclear arsenal to be activated. He felt sure that his arsenal would keep the Zerg away from the fortress.

Kerrigan ordered Zagara to build a hive cluster near the gates of the fortress while she took the standing forces to wreak as much havoc as she could before the nuclear arsenal was activated.

While Kerrigan was preparing to break open the gate, Sweetie began working on her plan for Warfield. She pulled out her rifle and activated a certain device.

Kerrigan wondered why Sweetie was staying behind but decided not to question it.

Meanwhile on Equus…

A certain pink party planner Pony was gathering the necessary party supplies for Carrot Top’s birthday party next week.

While she was bouncing along from shop to shop, a powerful sensation overtook her body. She was sweating from intense heat while shivering from a frigid chill at the same time. Her joints were excessively aching, her entire body was itchy and she felt compelled to stare at the sky before she started convulsing and dropped her party supplies all around her.

Rainbow Dash landed right next to Pinkie to ask about her issue, “Hey Pinkie, what’s gotten into you? Are you sick or is it your Pinkie Sense?”

When she recovered, Pinkie looked at Dashie, “It was my Pinkie Sense. But I never felt a doozy like the one I just felt. Of course, I don’t think it’s going to happen on this planet.”

Dash tilted her head. “Is this something we need to worry about?”

“Nope!” Pinkie chirped before, picked up the party supplies she dropped while having her episode and bounced away.

Dash stared at her for a few moments before shrugging and flying away.

Kerrigan drove her forces through the main gate and tore into the frontal defenses. Zagara continued sending Zerglings and Banelings into the fortress to reinforce Kerrigan.

Kerrigan decided to push into the left side of the fortress to gain access to some rich mineral crystals for later.

Kerrigan’s initial attack was short because after a few minutes, Warfield’s nuclear arsenal came online.

<”Time for the nuclear option! Kill them all!”>

“You’re right, it is time for the nuclear option.” Sweetie said before telepathically talking to Kerrigan. “Kerrigan, get back to the hive cluster, now!”

Kerrigan decided not to question it and used her Deep Tunnel ability to get back to the hive cluster before Sweetie activated the T.N.O.D.

Warfield was sitting in his command chair observing the battle. He had ordered the launch of a few of his Nuclear Missiles. He had a huge stockpile of them anyway. He had enough to last him for a long time.

One of his analysts, who refused to leave the planet as ordered, suddenly went deathly pale as he discovered something, “General, we have an emergency!”

“Of course we do, but not for much longer once they taste radiation.”

“That’s just it, sir. Our nuclear launch systems are being hacked remotely. I’m locked out of the system! The targeting systems are painting every inch of our own fortress and the entire nuclear stockpile is being made to launch!”

“What?! Impossible!” Warfield looked at the screen and just like the analyst said, the entire fortress was being targeted by his nuclear arsenal. Remembering what Sweetie did on Korhal when they were broadcasting Mengsk’s crimes to the public, he went pale as well. “What kind of hell-borne device did Sweetie Drops get her hands on to do this?!” he asked rhetorically out of terror.

As he said that, the fortress’ nuclear silo launched countless nuclear missiles that were aimed at everything inside the fortress walls.

Realizing that there was nothing left to do but wait for the end, Horace Warfield sat back in his chair and sighed, “Well played, Sweetie Drops, well played.”

Kerrigan stood next to Sweetie as the two observed the fortress. Ten seconds later, the sky above Warfield’s fortress weeped as a shower of Nuclear Missiles rained armageddon upon the man-made compound. Explosions roared for at least ten minutes and a cacophony of screaming Terrans could be heard for a few seconds longer than that. Not even the main stronghold could withstand such a cataclysmic assault as the entire fortress was flattened under the crushing power of a Nuclear Storm.

Some time after the explosions ended, Kerrigan sent a few Zerglings into the compound to check for Warfield. After extensive searching and a few Zerglings succumbing to radiation poisoning, they saw the charred white CMC suit that belonged to Horace Warfield. The visor was shattered and the inside contained a smoldering skull. Kerrigan saw the remains through the eyes of the Zerglings and knew that the old General didn’t survive.

Kerrigan looked at Sweetie, “Has anyone ever told you that you’re scary sometimes? Where the hell did you get a device like that?” she asked.

“Remember that time we raided Moria for minerals?” Sweetie sighed sadly, “I gave Warfield two chances to leave the planet. Honestly, I didn’t want to do that to him, but he wasn’t giving me much choice.”

Kerrigan put a hand on Sweetie’s shoulder. “Well, we can think about it another time. For now, let’s return to the Leviathan and consider our next course of action.”

Sweetie nodded while Kerrigan ordered Zagara and her Brood back to the Leviathan.

Unknown to everyone, the temperature in the area began to drop slightly.

Swarm: Offerings to the Ancient

With the death of General Horace Warfield by an excessive use of Nuclear Missiles, the Dominion had no more hold on Char. The Zerg could reclaim the planet for their own once again.

While the Swarm had a place to rebuild, Kerrigan knew that she had other things that needed to be done beyond Char. She began preparations to have the Swarm depart.

Zagara approached Sweetie and Kerrigan, feeling proud of her own power. “I am so powerful. I feel as if I could...be a threat to you now, my Queens.”

Kerrigan didn’t bother looking at Zagara as she spoke, “Listen well, Zagara. Someday you might rule the Swarm. If you think you can take it now, make your move. But the next time we fight, it is to the death. All or nothing.”

Zagara was intimidated by Kerrigan’s warning and decided to serve Kerrigan and Sweetie and learn from them, for now.

“What lesson did I teach you?” Kerrigan continued.

“Vision, my Queen. You taught me vision.”

“The Swarm is powerful. But power is not enough for its leader. Warfield was defeated not through numbers, or strength. He simply lacked vision. While I possess vision, Sweetie, I’ll admit, has more of it than I do.”

“I will learn from both of you, my Queens.”

Kerrigan turned to Sweetie, “I think it’s time I fulfilled my end of the bargain. Go to the nursery and take your pick of the Larvae. That will be the seed of your new Brood.”

Sweetie nodded and left the command chamber to find the nursery. Sweetie took advantage of the hive mind to locate her destination and arrived within a few minutes.

Inside the nursery, Sweetie noticed a large number of Larvae crawling around. The Larvae in the nursery were typically morphed into Drones in preparation for an operation. Once ready, the Drones were loaded into sacs for the next mission.

Sweetie took a look at each Larva, although they were almost exactly alike, Sweetie was looking for one trait that is not noticed easily. Using her telekinesis spell, Sweetie lifted each of the Larvae off the floor and directly exposed each to magical energy. After a while, one of the Larvae developed an adaptation to magic. While lifting the chosen Zerg, Sweetie crushed the rest in a psionic grip and absorbed their essence to prevent the rest of the Swarm from using the adaptation. She wanted an edge over the rest of the Swarm in case they turned on her.

Sweetie took direct control of the surviving Larva and morphed it into a Drone. Sweetie left the nursery with the Drone in tow.

When Sweetie returned to the command chamber, Izsha told her that Kerrigan went to the evolution pit. Abathur called her because he was ready to modify the Banelings. Since Kerrigan and Abathur were likely waiting for her, she decided to not keep them waiting any longer.

When Sweetie arrived at the evolution pit, Kerrigan and Abathur were indeed waiting for her. While they were waiting, the two were discussing prior experiments on Terrans and Abathur’s displeasure at working with a species that was, in his opinion, flawed in every way. Kerrigan declared an end to any future experiments on Humans, to Abathur’s relief.

Once ready, Kerrigan and Sweetie began projecting their vision to the first planet of Abathur’s choosing, Nelyth. Abathur discovered a unique lifeform on the surface. Mitoscarabs were creatures with large bodies and long, thin legs. Numerous thick spikes decorate its body. Should the Mitoscarab be slain, it can split itself into two lesser versions of itself.

Abathur delivered Banelings into the Mitoscarab nesting area via Nydus Worm. The Banelings blew themselves up against a nearby Mitoscarab and killed the two that spawned from it. The Banelings devoured the lesser forms before moving against the prime Mitoscarab. The prime Mitoscarab split into two then into four and each were killed by acid splash and devoured.

Abathur delivered more Banelings and used the collected essence to create the Splitter Strain, taking the ability to split into smaller versions of themselves from the Mitoscarabs.

The new Banelings made quick work of a pair of Zealots and a Colossus. The Protoss shrine was quickly cleared out by the small suicide bombers.

A volcanic world called Scoria was the next world for Abathur’s demonstration. The evolution master subjected many Banelings to harsh conditions until the Banelings developed an adaptation to the dangers of rising lava, creating the Hunter Strain who have the ability to leap over steep cliffs.

The survivors of Abathur’s experiments were gathered and used to attack the Dominion who apparently have some sort of interest in the resources on the volcanic planet. One unfortunate Marine cried about how unfair jumping Banelings were.

The Banelings were sent against the main mining camp by going around the frontal defenses by using the cliffs. The miners were attacked from behind and their operations were wiped out.

When the time came to choose between the Splitter and Hunter Strains, Sweetie and Kerrigan deliberated for a few minutes before they decided to use the Hunter Strain for the Swarm.

Once the demonstration ended, Abathur noticed the Drone next to Sweetie and discovered an adaptation that he had never heard of. Neither Abathur nor Kerrigan were real believers of magic and Sweetie preferred to keep it that way for the time being.

Kerrigan directed Sweetie and her Drone to an unused chamber for her to begin spawning her Brood.

Once there, the Drone mutated itself into a Hatchery which would spawn more Larvae. Sweetie took the time to improve upon their magical adaptation by exposing them to her magic for the duration of the time it took for the Leviathan to reach Zerus.

The travel time to Zerus was long, at least a month since Zerus was far away from the Koprulu Sector. In this time, Sweetie practiced managing a hive cluster by learning how the hive structures worked and how to coordinate the various strains.

Sweetie opted out of using the enhanced strains of Zerg that Abathur had been providing because she had a strange feeling that she was going to have a chance to make something even better than what the evolution master was able to provide.

Ariel Hanson started living in the chamber about a week into the journey. She saw Sweetie’s work as an opportunity to observe and take notes on Zerg behaviors and biology. When she asked Sweetie about their next destination, an even greater sense of curiosity took her when she learned about the Primal Zerg, Zerg that managed to hide from Amon when he altered the ones who were found.

Unlike the Swarm, the Primal Zerg were not linked to a hive mind and each individual was in a constant state of evolution while adopting a tribalistic culture instead of a hive culture.

What the Swarm arrived, or returned in this case, Kerrigan and Sweetie observed the landscape and both realized that they had no idea on what to do next.

Suddenly, Sweetie’s consciousness switched with the Overmind. While Sweetie was not in control of her body at the moment, she was still able to listen to what the Overmind had to say.

~”There is an ancient Zerg nearby that is older than even myself. The behemoth known as Zurvan sleeps through the ages. It awaits an offering of biomass to awaken and grant its wisdom to those that seek it. Zurvan will guide you to the power of Zerus. You must hurry, time grows short for myself and Sweetie.”~

Sweetie’s consciousness was returned to her body. “Well, looks like we have our lead.”

While the Swarm was getting ready to find a suitable offering which, according to Izsha, would have to be a large amount of biomass, a pack of Primal Zerg gathered in an effort to keep the Swarm from awakening Zurvan.

Feeding the creature the collected biomass wasn’t going to be a problem since it slept with its gaping mouth wide open. The problem was collecting the biomass itself since the Primal Zerg intended on destroying the nearby wildlife to prevent any meat from getting to Zurvan.

Since the area was crawling with a species of spiked beasts called Quillgor, it was decided to feed the beasts to the ancient Zerg.

A wave of Primal Guardians tried to attack Kerrigan’s hive cluster but were thwarted when Abathur reconstituted the Mutalisks.

Sweetie set up her own hive cluster near Kerrigan’s hive cluster. Both set up their forces quickly in preparation for Primal Zerg attacks and to move out and gather meat for Zurvan.

Given her Pony nature, Sweetie was uncomfortable with all the meat being moved around. While she knew that matters of flesh were to be expected when hanging out with the Zerg, it didn’t change the fact that being part of a race of omnivores that very rarely ate meat, and that was fish, would make watching Quillgor biomass being moved around cringeworthy.

Kerrigan spotted a pool of water nearby that contained some living essence within. She invited Sweetie to join her in absorbing the essence in the water. Once done, both could feel their own strengths improved.

When the Primal raiding parties started attacking the Quillgor biomass, Kerrigan and Sweetie moved quickly to eliminate them. Sweetie’s Mindblast proved effective since they were gathered around the carcass.

Unknown to Sweetie and Kerrigan, someone was watching all of the action unfolding. It watched and waited; searching for the perfect opportunity…

Using their respective hive clusters, Sweetie and Kerrigan amassed a large number of Mutalisks to act as rapid response to defend the Quillgor corpses and the Drones that harvest them.

While the Mutalisks defended against the Primal Zerg, Sweetie and Kerrigan explored the area and gathered essence from a couple more pools in the area.

Once they were sure that the Mutalisks could handle anything the Primal Zerg could throw at them, both morphed a number of Swarm Queens, Zerglings, Hydralisks and Roaches and attacked the largest concentrations of Primal Zerg forces to interfere with attack parties before they could threaten the hive clusters.

When a large enough portion of meat had been fed to Zurvan, it began to stir very slowly.

Since the plan to prevent the Swarm from collecting biomass to awaken Zurvan had failed, Brakk, the leader of the attacking Zerg pack, made a desperate bid to wipe out the Swarm. He was met with powerful psionic attacks and a huge number of Zerg on the ground and in the air. Brakk was severely outnumbered and overwhelmed while putting up the best fight that he could before collapsing.

Sweetie decided to give Zurvan one last helping to make sure it woke up by levitating Brakk’s corpse into Zurvan’s gaping maw.

Zurvan emerged from his resting place, a bit sluggish from being overfed. “I return.”

Kerrigan and Sweetie approach the ancient Zerg. Kerrigan spoke first, “Ancient One! We are here for the power of Zerus. You will help us.”

“We seek a means to combat Amon when the time comes for him to declare war on the universe. While I know that the power of Zerus alone will not stop him, gaining the power is still a necessary step toward his downfall,” Sweetie said.

Zurvan stared at Sweetie for a few moments. “You seek to combat a foe who was ancient when I was young? The power of Zerus will grant you Purity of Essence. I can sense that you are of a race that was blessed with Purity of Form. Both of you must be remade as Primal Zerg. You must both become pure of essence.”

It looked at Sweetie, “Within you, Child of the Xel’naga, I can sense the presence of Amon’s creation. I can sense the friction between two minds within you. While the other may have the option to find another path to power, you must be willing to sacrifice everything for this power or you will lose everything.”

While Sweetie understood what she was getting into, one thing that it said had actually confused her: “Did it just call me ‘Child of the Xel’naga?’”

Author's Note

I think everyone who has read up to this point knows what's gonna happen next. Hope you like the end result.

Swarm: Inner Battle

In the aftermath of dealing with the Primal Zerg Pack Leader, Brakk, Sweetie and Kerrigan noticed that the Zerg who followed Brakk were in disarray. Without its leader, Sweetie knew that it was only a matter of time before one of the other Pack Leaders comes along and claims the essence of the rest of the leaderless pack.

Izsha was concerned about awakening Zurvan when the creature was more powerful than Sweetie and Kerrigan combined.

“The Ancient One is key to unlocking the power of Zerus, and I need that knowledge,” Kerrigan said.

“Would it not be more prudent to simply ask the Overmind? Its knowledge should be sufficient to suit your needs.”

Sweetie’s consciousness shifted, ~”It is not the knowledge possessed by Zurvan that you need, but its essence. By claiming the essence of the most powerful creature on Zerus, you will be ready to face Amon’s army.”~

“Amon’s forces can wait. Mengsk comes first,” Kerrigan said.

~”Carry out your vengeance with due haste. The End War draws near. You must seek the first Spawning Pool where our kind originate. You must let it remake you both. Zurvan will lead you to it.”~ Sweetie’s consciousness returned. She clutched her head as she was struck with a bout of dizziness.

The Overmind gave one last warning to Sweetie, ~”When Zerus remakes you, you and I shall decide who is most fit to wield the power you shall gain. Should you emerge victorious, the entirety of my knowledge shall be yours, including all secrets of the Zerg. My victory shall allow me to claim the essence of your people and I shall create a new Swarm that shall conquer the universe.”~

Sweetie already knew the stakes and knew that a battle with the Overmind was inevitable, though some part of her was going to miss the unfortunate being.

Once Kerrigan and Sweetie made their final preparations, they called Zurvan to them to lead them to the first Spawning Pool. Once located, Sweetie and Kerrigan boarded a drop sac and landed near the Spawning Pool.

Zurvan, who was nearby, said, “You have come to this place seeking power. You must feel the power. It calls to you. Go to it.” Its attention turned to Sweetie. “You must overcome the Overmind or lose everything. The power of your world will be your strength.”

Sweetie wasn’t sure what Zurvan meant, regardless, the two pressed forward.

The two were alerted to a small group of Primal Zerg headed in their direction. Abathur, who had been studying the Primals as much as the Primals had been studying the Swarm, sent a few Swarm Hosts, a strain that walks on four pointed legs while they bear a Locust nest on their backs.

The Swarm Hosts burrowed in front of Sweetie and Kerrigan and began spawning Locusts, large beetle-like creatures that spat bits of acid. The Locusts made quick work of the incoming Primal Zerg group.

Sweetie and Kerrigan arrived at the first Spawning Pool. Zurvan asked Kerrigan one last time if her hatred was still strong enough to survive the changes. Kerrigan was fully resolved to take the risk if it meant that she could kill Mengsk.

“You will have your power, and you will lose yourself. Evolve. Transform. Transcend. Overcome.”

Abathur gave the two one last chance to turn back because he was uncertain if either of them would survive the experience.

Kerrigan gave Zagara command of the hive cluster near the pool for the duration of their metamorphoses. Once ready, Kerrigan and Sweetie stepped into the center of the Spawning Pool. Sweetie tossed her rifle to the shore.

Large, chitinous tendrils emerged all around the two and surrounded them. The tentacles enclosed both into their own individual spaces. Each isolated from the world around them and each other, they wondered what would happen next.

It was then that Sweetie’s space was filling with a fluid that she had never seen before. The tendrils made sure that the fluid would not escape by tightening their grip on the small space around her. The fluid continued to rise and was soon above her knees, then her waist, then her torso and finally immersed her fully into the organic fluid.

After what felt like several minutes since she was placed under the fluid, she started to lose consciousness. When she fully relaxed herself, she began floating in the amniotic fluid before fully losing consciousness.

Zagara watched the two become wrapped in their own respective chrysalises. Just by looking at them, she could see how vulnerable they would be in such states. A small part of her wanted to take advantage of their vulnerability and kill them both, but she knew better than to let secrets that her teachers have yet to teach her become lost because she was eager to take the Swarm for herself.

Zagara started morphing more Swarm Hosts to increase the security around the area. She had plenty of Drones morph into Spine and Spore Crawlers in preparation for a Primal Zerg attack.

As expected, the packless Primals began gathering near the area in preparation to attack the hive cluster and the chrysalises. Zagara moved the Swarm Hosts and Spine Crawlers to the western position to deal with the leaderless group. Swarm Queens acted as support for the operation.

Zagara detected another pack. This one declared that Brakk’s pack would be claimed by its pack, territory and essence.

With that, Brakk’s leaderless pack went to war with the other pack, led by one who called itself Yagdra. The giant worm-like Zerg leader sent its pack against both Brakk’s pack and Zagara.

Sweetie awoke to find herself in a grassy field with Ponyville in the distance. Some places around her appear to have been decimated as a result of powerful magical blasts. The Everfree Forest was also nearby.

What interested Sweetie the most was the black stallion with a crimson mane in a crimson suit with a black tie. He looked around as if inspecting the aftermath of a great battle.

As Sweetie approached him, his distant gaze remained for a short time before he said, “This battlefield is a testament to your people’s potential to overcome great challenges. I looked through your memories and saw the battle between one who took on the burden of power they were too inexperienced to control, and one who sought power and conquest. I witnessed the courage that she displayed when she gave it up to save her friends.”

He turned to Sweetie. “This battlefield shall be used once more. You already know the stakes. Our wills shall clash one last time. Only one of us may survive. The power of Equus and the power of Zerus; which will prove superior this day?” The Overmind assumed a combat stance. “Prepare yourself!”

Sweetie and the Overmind charged at each other to begin their battle.

Yagdra’s and Brakk’s packs began pushing against the hive cluster from opposite entrances, forcing Zagara to divide the Spine Crawlers and Swarm Hosts appropriately for each entrance.

Abathur made a discovery about the Spawning Pool, with the right stimulation, it could spawn a swarm of flying Locusts that would devastate a wave of Primal Zerg. Since the essence in the Pool gathered quickly, Zagara took full advantage of the Locust swarms.

Occasionally, Yagdra would send Primal Mutalisks to attack the chrysalises. Thankfully, Zagara anticipated this and had a number of Spore Crawlers and Mutalisks guarding the edges of the Pool.

Zagara soon began to notice that the two chrysalises were growing.

In preparation for the fight, the Overmind replaced his suit with a chitinous carapace while his fingers were sharpened as claws. A number of sharp tendrils grew from his back.

Sweetie still had her rifle and her psionic power. She hoped they would be enough to handle the ancient being.

The Overmind thrust one of his tentacles and Sweetie’s direction which was easily dodged. He didn’t bother trying to dodge the shots fired at him. He ran forward and started slashing at her with his claws. She dodged most of the swipes and had to block the rest with her rifle which sent her flying a short distance.

Sweetie recovered quickly enough to hit the Overmind with a Mindblast which momentarily stunned him long enough for her to fire a few shots at his face. He recovered from the attack and the damage to his face by regenerating the damaged tissue.

While regenerating, Sweetie hit him with a Psionic Lash which sent him flying backwards.

The Overmind counterattacked by driving a tendril into the ground and caused it to emerge from below Sweetie. She felt the tremors, which came easy to her because of her Earth Pony attribute, and skillfully dodged it.

The battle continued for some time in that fashion.

The Primal attacks continued to intensify. Both packs were continuing to attack each other and Zagara’s position.

Abathur detected the presence of a creature with some decent essence and wanted Zagara to send a force to bypass the basin where the two packs were fighting and kill the creature to acquire its essence. Zagara was able to handle the task by sending a swarm of Mutalisks after it.

Meanwhile, the two packs attempted to attack the hive cluster simultaneously in a pincer attack. Zagara reacted by unleashing a swarm of Locusts on both packs.

Zagara was still managing to hold the line.

Sweetie was becoming frustrated because she was having difficulty landing strong hits on the equine representation of the Overmind. Her abilities didn’t seem to do much as he brushed himself off after a hit from her Psionic Lash.

She would need to use a new strategy if she wished to emerge victorious.

It was during this time that she began to think about Lyra and how she could really use her help dealing with him.

Suddenly, one of the Overmind’s tendrils got slashed off, leaving a smoldering burn on the stub. Lyra suddenly appeared next to Sweetie. “Lyra? What are you doing here?” Sweetie asked.

She didn’t respond.

After a moment of thinking, Sweetie realized that she was looking at a representation of Lyra in her mind. That’s when it clicked; she needed to use the power of Equus to defeat the Overmind and that power was in her own memories.

Since she was in her own mind, she would make use of it. She imagined herself as a unicorn. A moment later, a horn grew from her forehead. Remembering the magic spells that Lyra showed her, Sweetie fired a magical blast from her horn. The Overmind reeled from the attack for a moment before picking himself up.

Sweetie’s battle truly began.

Zagara was being put through a stress test by facing the increasingly frequent Primal attacks from both sides. At this point, she had both sides heavily fortified with Spine Crawlers and Swarm Hosts.

Izsha suddenly warned Zagara that Yagdra’s pack was trying to break through the wall of rocks that were blocking an entrance from the basin where the two packs continued to fight. Zagara sent her Mutalisk swarm after the Primals digging through the rock pile.

Zagara was also abusing the Locust swarms as much as she could to keep the Primal Zerg at bay.

While all this was going on, the intense battle was watched by a curious set of eyes. What was seen was plenty of essence being devoured and the creature intended to collect what was left in the aftermath.

The battle intensified in Sweetie’s mind as the Overmind used the denizens of Sweetie’s inner world by infesting them and sending them at her, forcing her to kill those that she had come to know over the years: customers, friends, families of friends.

Sweetie countered the Overmind’s moves by imagining an army of Royal Guard equipped with the latest in Terran weaponry: gauss rifles, flamethrowers, grenade launchers and cluster bombs were brought against the infested Ponies.

The Overmind cleared the battlefield by planting his tentacles into the ground and made them branch out into countless sub-tentacles which all erupted from the ground and impaled the infested and Royal Guard as well as the image of Lyra.

Sweetie thought fast by imagining herself with wings so she could lift herself out of the range of the impaling tentacles. She fled into the Everfree Forest to find something she could use against the Overmind. After a few minutes of searching and a mutated equine chasing her, she finally found something she might be able to use to catch him off guard.

When the Overmind finally caught up to her, Sweetie was standing in one spot in a clearing and facing him with determination in her eyes. He knew Sweetie long enough to know that she was plotting something. “I hope for your sake that this plan of yours will save you from your impending demise.”

As the Overmind cautiously walked closer to Sweetie, she gave a wicked smirk and executed her plan. A large number of Cockatrice flew into the clearing and completely ignored Sweetie. The Overmind was confused about what the creatures were and how they fit into Sweetie’s plan before he realized too late what she planned. The stare of the numerous avian lizards began causing his body to become stiff and heavy and began to turn into stone.

The Overmind reacted by using his tentacles to crush the creatures but there were too many to deal with and the number of petrifying stares was accelerating the process.

When the process was complete, Sweetie planted a number of charges on the statue and detonated them, shattering him into many pieces.

The landscape suddenly turned black. Sweetie looked around until she saw the kneeling form of the Overmind in his fully equine form without any growths. “You have bested me, you may claim everything that you wish from me. It is your right. Finish me.”

Sweetie smiled, “I’ll claim what I want, but I won't erase you. I think I know what I want to do with you. For now, I claim your knowledge and essence and all of your powers. I’ll need everything you can give for when I face Amon’s army.”

Sweetie absorbed the parts that she wanted, leaving a powerless Overmind with no memories behind.

Yagdra’s pack had just finished wiping out the last of Brakk’s pack and began pushing all of its forces against the hive cluster and the chrysalises. The constant pressure on all fronts eventually allowed Yagdra’s pack the opportunity to break through the rocks guarding the third entrance.

Zagara had the Mutalisks defend the third opening until she brought a number of Swarm Hosts and Spine Crawlers to defend it.

The constant stream on all fronts was placing a lot of stress on the defenses and Zagara was only barely managing to keep up with the attacks. She unleashed the Locust Swarm one more time to push the pack back. Zagara was given a small respite from the attacks but it was long enough.

Zagara’s efforts were rewarded when Kerrigan’s chrysalis began cracking like an egg where the cracks displayed a powerful, violet colored energy. Kerrigan pierced through the shell with the edge of her wing before swiping through the rest and emerging from her shell with a powerful roar of primal fury. Everyone on Zerus felt the power of the new Queen of Blades.

When the maelstrom of power died down, everyone looked at Sweetie’s chrysalis with anticipation. The life inside the chrysalis began to stir and the shell began to crack with a blue light. A long, cream-colored, chitinous horn punched through the shell before slicing down and a pair of hard cream-colored wings pulled the opening apart, allowing Sweetie to emerge from her chrysalis.

Her Hostile Environment suit had dissolved while the features it provided were integrated into her body which was fortified with chitinous armor colored in blue and pink to match her mane colors. Her hands had razor-sharp claws at the end. She had huge cream-colored wings which, unlike Kerrigan’s, had a layer of membrane to allow for flight. While her mane was unaffected, possibly due to the magical properties within, the most notable changes on her head was a long, chitinous horn and razor-sharp teeth. Her hooves had become sharpened with the keratin reinforced with chitinous blades around her ankles. The biggest change, however, came from her flank. Where once there was an image of three candies in striped wrapping, the image changed to three helical strands of DNA.

Sweetie fired a powerful magical blast from her horn into the sky. The blast hit one of the moons and created a massive hole on its surface.

Everyone stared in amazement at Sweetie’s newfound power.

Author's Note

Be prepared for some exposition in the next chapter.

Swarm: Apex Pony Predator

Author's Note

Remember that little gift Discord gave to Sweetie in the first chapter? Ever been wondering what was in it? If you don't remember, consider looking at the first chapter for a refresher before reading this.

Trigger Warning: Consumption of normally inedible substances.

Swarm: Apex Pony Predator

Sweetie took some time to get used to her new body and the knowledge that she attained. Many new thoughts raced through her head; ideas about how to fight with her new form and ideas on himhow to improve the efficiency of her Brood.

Her self-testing would have to wait because once she and Kerrigan returned to the Leviathan’s command chamber they were met with a highly peculiar Primal Zerg. Unlike most of the other Zerg strains, this one walked on two legs. It had two sets of jaws with the outer set having tusks with one broken off. The color of its carapace was a mix of grey and light purple. One of its two arms ended in a set of large claws while the other arm appeared like it was in the process of regrowth. A third limb looked like part of it was severed at some point. Its tail was lined with spikes.

“What’s a Primal doing on my Leviathan?” Kerrigan asked.

“I am Dehaka. One who collects. I kill, I take essence. Now I come to you because I feel your change. All Zerus feels it. All Zerus fears it, and you.”

“But you don’t fear us, do you, Dehaka?”

“You shine. You will bring more essence, and I will follow. When you do not, I will not.”

“Well, I’ve forged alliances on shakier ground than that. Very well, you can stay. Betray me and I’ll collect your essence.”

Something had been bothering Kerrigan about Sweetie’s mission to deal with Amon and decided to ask her, “I know that Amon is dead. Why do you believe that he is still a threat?”

“Physically, he is dead. It’s the fact that Narud is still acting in service to Amon and the vision of the future the Overmind gave me that tells me that there is a way to bring him back to this plane of existence. I don’t know if he can be physically restored but his consciousness is still active. He might have already been brought back into the universe for all I know.”

After talking to everyone in the command chamber, Sweetie and Kerrigan paid a visit to Abathur to show themselves off.

Abathur looked at Kerrigan first. “Genetic strands different. Restructured from base level up. Stronger than Queen of Blades. Sequences complex but clean. Completely different at core. Must take sample. Study new sequences.”

“Don’t even try, Abathur,” Kerrigan warned. “What I am now is beyond your comprehension.”

Abathur had to admit that she was right. He then looked at Sweetie. “Similar restructuring detected. Purpose of forehead appendage unknown. Flight capabilities possible. Strands constantly shifting, chaotic, yet orderly. Ever-changing sequences allow for self-alterations.”

Sweetie took a moment to concentrate and a number of long tentacles grew from her back that appeared to act as extensions of her body.

Acting on a feeling that she couldn’t explain, she lit her horn and a tentacle reached into what appeared to be an invisible rift. A few moments later, the tentacle pulled out a large plastic container that made the clinking sound of glassware inside. She set the container on the ground beside her.

“What is that?” Kerrigan asked.

“I’m not sure what’s in here. Discord gave this to me just before my adventures in the Koprulu Sector began...and don’t ask about him, let’s just say that he’s trouble you don’t need. If Abathur tried to look at his genetics, he would probably break mentally.”

Abathur looked at the box. “Large variety of essence detected within box. Must aqui--”

Before Sweetie could hear the rest of Abathur’s demands, Sweetie was thrust into a different realm with landmasses randomly floating about in what seemed like an endless void. After rubbing her head from the hard landing, she looked around, waiting for him to show up.

A few minutes later, Discord finally showed up. “We finally get to the fun part of your little journey,” he said.

“You knew that I would become this?” Sweetie said, gesturing to herself.

“Of course I knew.” He magically created a reenactment of the moments she and Lyra had together before he showed up, showing that Sweetie was desperate enough to do whatever it took to have her revenge on Blueblood.

“I get the feeling that there is more to it than my desire for revenge.”

“Sharp cookie,” he said while eating a snickerdoodle cookie with a razor-sharp edge. With a sigh, he said, “Perhaps you’d like to know about the experiments that have been conducted on Equus for thousands of years, conveniently, about the time when Celestia and Luna showed up.”

Sweetie raised an eyebrow. “What does that have to do with me?”

“It’s quite simple. Listen to my story and don’t interrupt. You will be given a choice.” Discord narrowed his eyes.

“It is said that the Xel’naga were decimated during Amon’s rebellion, yet a few of them remained to carry out the Infinite Cycle that they value so much. A few thousand years ago, the Xel’naga discovered Equus and searched for any possible candidates to ascend to become Xel’naga. I was actually the first on Equus to become one. I possessed Purity of Form and Purity of Essence. When they noticed, they granted me their Essence of Eternity which allowed me to ascend and become a Xel’naga.

“However, in my impetuous nature, I ended up abusing my power and ruled Equestria as I saw fit. When the other Xel’naga saw my inappropriate actions, they feared that I would fall like Amon did. Instead of handling it themselves, however, they sought other potential candidates to try and create an example for me to follow. They succeeded in finding two. A pair of siblings who at the time failed to notice that their father was a Changeling, a race that possessed Purity of Essence. Their mother was a Unicorn, a race that possessed the greatest expression of Purity of Form. The mother knew what her husband was.

“The Royal Sisters were the product of their union. When the Xel’naga discovered them after they reached adulthood, they offered their Essence of Eternity to the Sisters in an attempt to use them to keep me under control. That attempt failed because of a difference in experience between myself and the Sisters at the time.

“In one last effort to salvage the mess they made, the Xel’naga sacrificed their essence to create a certain tree that you may be familiar with. The sisters used the gems that were produced from that tree to turn me to stone.

“Since then, the Sisters have been doing what they could to continue the work of those who empowered them; to continue the Infinite Cycle like the goody two-hooves they were. Since they learned that their father was a Changeling, they would try to sneak one into the Pony gene pool every now and then to create more potential candidates for ascension since only those who possess Purity of Form and Essence can become Xel’naga.

“The two had no idea how to continue the work of the Xel’naga. Among their first attempts was young mare named Chrysalis. She was so promising too. When the Sisters decided to make her a Xel’naga, they were so happy with the results. A few years later, she questioned why they needed to continue the work of a dead race. The explanation was not good enough for her and considered walking the same path I did. To avoid a repeat, the Sisters placed a curse on her that transformed her into a Changeling and her true power was forever lost.

“When the Lunar Rebellion happened, Celestia was afraid that Luna was turning into a Fallen One and banished her to the moon in an effort to stall her fall from grace until she could find a means to save her since she knew that turning her sister into a Changeling would emotionally destroy her..

“Since then, Celestia worked alone in trying to continue the Infinite Cycle. It was a long string of failures for her. Numerous Changeling Queens were the result of her actions. The latest three in her experiments are Sunset Shimmer, whose training has been put on hold indefinitely, Cadance and Twilight Sparkle. The last two appear to be doing well, but time will tell whether they may be Celestia’s first successes or another pair of Changeling Queens in the making.

“And now we come to you. I wanted to try my hand at nurturing a candidate and you had the drive and sense necessary to survive what I intended to put you through. In my free time, I looked up other races in the universe that possessed Purity of Form and Purity of Essence and came across the Protoss and the Zerg. All I needed was a volunteer.”

When Discord finally finished his long-winded lecture, Sweetie was finally free to ask questions. “So...the Princesses are all Xel’naga? Do Cadance and Twilight even know about what you just told me?”

“Yes and no, but not necessarily in that order.”

“Why even bother with me though? I checked my parents and they were both Earth Ponies. Unicorns are the ones with the highest psionic potential.”

“Which helped to make you the perfect candidate for my experiment. You didn’t think you ended up in that field of radioactive Jorium by accident, did you? I figured that sooner or later you would end up seeking power from the Zerg which is why I packed this case full of the essence of every known species on Equus. Plus, I wanted to see how creative you can be.” Discord dipped a paintbrush in a puddle of blood and painted on a Zergling that he summoned into his dimension.

“So let me see if I have this correct. In exchange for helping me avenge my fallen and dishonored comrades, I take part in your Xel’naga experiment.”

“That’s the simplified version. And now, your choice. If you do not wish to proceed with my experiment, I can send you and Lyra home and you can keep your powers and memories long enough for you to kill Blueblood. Once you take your revenge you can live out your simple lives together.”

Sweetie thought about it but she couldn’t comfortably come to a decision on this without consulting Lyra.

Discord snapped his talons and Lyra fell to the ground next to Sweetie.

One long winded greeting, explanation of Sweetie’s new form, which Lyra quickly accepted, and explanation from Discord later, Lyra and Sweetie began to deliberate on whether to go home or explore the deepest depths of the proverbial rabbit hole they find themselves in.

In the end, Lyra decided that she wanted to use her new powers to help Sweetie in whatever goal she pursued. Sweetie thought about what she wanted for a while and finally decided on what she wanted to do.

And that involved continuing Discord’s experiment.

When Sweetie gave her answer, Discord snapped his talons and Lyra was ejected from the spatial plane.

“So what do I need to do?” Sweetie asked.

“In order to make use of the essences that I gave you, you will need to consume the contents of each vial,” Discord said. Sweetie cringed in disgust. “No need to worry about the taste. Thanks to your metamorphosis, the essences in this container should taste delicious, like different flavors of ice cream.”

Sweetie gulped as she crouched to open the trunk. Once she unlocked it, she opened it to find a large number of vials that were filled with blood, flesh and other organic material. Sweetie could feel the magic coming from each vial.

She picked up a vial that was labeled ‘Parasprite’. Looking inside, she saw a blended puree of several of the creatures. She popped off the cork and closed her eyes tightly as she downed the mix.

It was...delicious…

The taste wasn’t what she was expecting at all. In fact, the taste had a bit of sweetness to it that wasn’t overpowering. There was a slightly crunchy texture to it.

She picked up another vial that was labeled ‘Griffon’. She saw what she assumed to be Griffon’s blood within the glass container. When she drank the blood, it turned out to be quite tasty.

After that, Sweetie began consuming vials of essence left and right until she emptied the trunk of its contents.

When she finished, she wiped her mouth of any that got on her. Her mind was filled with ideas on how to improve her Brood. She knew then what kind of Brood that she wanted to create.

Discord was intrigued and disgusted by Sweetie’s display but swallowed his bile before giving her one last message. “We will not see each other for a while. When next we meet, I will be taking you home.” Discord snapped his talons and Sweetie was once again in the evolution pit of the Leviathan.

“--re...huh?” Abathur looked at the empty trunk. “Essences gone. Abnormality occurred.”

While Abathur was busy being confused, Sweetie led Kerrigan back to the command chamber and explained some of what happened.

Zurvan told the two that it was time for them to confront the other pack leaders and claim their essence. He told them about the other leaders. Yagdra was a worm that could spit burning acid. Kraith was an armored Zerg that was blinded by its hatred. Slivan the Eternal Mother looked like a Swarm Host and was hollow and destructive.

Since the leaders sent most of their packs to attack the Swarm, they themselves were vulnerable to attack.

Kerrigan left Zagara to protect the Leviathan while she and Sweetie dealt with the pack leaders.

Kerrigan leaped over a lava stream and stabbed an unfortunate Primal Hydralisk with her wing claws. Sweetie flew over the stream.

After leaping to another platform, Kerrigan used her Psionic Shift ability and dashed through a group of Primal Zerglings, tearing each one apart.

Sweetie flew over to a strange relic and realized that it was of Xel’naga origin. She held onto it for safekeeping.

Some of Dehaka’s Primal Roaches were battling some of Yagdra’s Hydralisks. This time Sweetie tried one of her abilities: Mass Impale. She grew some tentacles and stuck them in the ground before they impaled all of the Hydralisks from below. The Roaches joined Kerrigan and Sweetie. Kerrigan healed the Roaches by twisting their essences and mending their flesh.

Sweetie devised another ability to use against a nearby Primal Ultralisk: Baneling Grenade. She spawned a Baneling in her hand and tossed it at her enemies. Upon impact, the Ultralisk dissolved into a pile of goo. The ability also worked especially well against group like ones that were guarding a Xel’naga relic.

Against a group of Hydralisks and one Ultralisk, Sweetie Impaled the Hydralisks and hurled a couple of Banelings at the Ultralisk.

Dehaka gave them a couple more Roaches to assist against Yagdra who was nearby.

Yagdra emerged from the ground and was taken by surprise. “Leaders of the broken pack? No!” He was clearly scared of the overwhelming power of Sweetie and Kerrigan.

He began spitting fire at everyone which was skillfully dodged. When he retreated underground, he laid eggs that contained a combination of Zerglings, Hydralisks and Ultralisks. Sweetie dissolved the eggs with a Baneling Grenade.

As the battle progressed, Yagdra retreated underground more often and left more eggs to deal with.

One lucky shot of fire hit Sweetie. To her surprise it didn’t even hurt. She suspected that her resistance was due to the Dragon essence she consumed.

Feeling bold, Sweetie dove into Yagdra’s mouth. One moment the worm was confused before he realized too late what she did as numerous tentacles punched out of its carapace and wormed their way about its body, stabbing its internal organs. When a vital organ was impaled, Yagdra slumped over and ceased movement. Sweetie burst out of the fallen worm with a magical blast.

Kerrigan and Sweetie shared the essence that was absorbed from Yagdra’s corpse.

The next leg of their journey took them past a lot of eggs. Sweetie used her Mass Impale and Baneling Grenade abilities to eliminate the eggs with help from Kerrigan’s Leaping Strike and Psionic Shift.

Dehaka provided Hydralisks to support the duo as waves of Kraith’s pack emerged from caves and other places. The group pushed their way through the waves, grabbing a relic along the way, and found their way to Kraith’s lair.

“I feel your strength. You will both be worth killing, worth the blood!” Kraith said.

The first thing Kraith did was launch a barrage of tiny creatures at them. This was followed by charging at the duo and hitting a wall, dropping a number of Zerglings into the arena.

Kerrigan lured the Zerglings to her to group them up then finish them with Psionic Shift. Sweetie went for Kraith by kicking it at its side and causing it to roll over on its back. Sweetie and Kerrigan took advantage of its vulnerability and tore at its flesh until he succumbed to its wounds. Once again, the two shared the essence reward.

The next area featured a more jungle-like area. Dehaka provided a Primal Ultralisk for assistance.

Creatures encountered in the area included Ravasaurs, who hurled globs of acid, and Creepers, who were similar to Banelings but had a small delay until detonation when they came into contact with an enemy. There were also Slivan Needlers that were weak equivalents to Spine Crawlers. Sweetie noticed a Xel’naga relic near a group of Ravasaurs and flew over to grab it. She flew above the attack range of the Ravasaurs and swooped in to grab the relic.

Kerrigan pushed through swarms of Creepers and tore down Ravasaurs and Needlers.

Soon, the duo came face to face with the Eternal Mother.

“Welcome...to your demise.” she said as she spawned more of her weak imitations of Banelings.

Instead of dealing with Slivan’s tactics, Sweetie decided to simply impale the Eternal Mother before leaping on the nest on her back and ripping out an egg before tossing a few Banelings of her own into the nest. The resulting explosions devastated Slivan from the inside out.

Once again the spoils were shared by the duo.

It was at this time that Zurvan decided to make its move. “The pack leaders are slain, their packs join your Swarm, and here you stand. Complete. You are Zerg. Your essence overflows with power. I...I thirst. You both shall feed my evolution; the first in millennia.” Zurvan arose and tore apart the area around the platform they group stood upon.

Sweetie smirked, “This saves us the effort of hunting you down. Eliminating you is a necessary step on our path to eliminating the threat of Amon.”

“If you believe that you can destroy him, then prove it by taking my essence...if you can.”

Whenever Zurvan opened its mouth, Sweetie tossed a Baneling in to cause the ancient Zerg internal damage. It consistently tried to smash the platform with its arms. Sweetie and Kerrigan were able to avoid the arms while the minions were too slow to avoid the attacks. Zurvan spawned a group of Zerglings and Hydralisks which got impaled on Sweetie’s Tentacles and the Ancient One got another mouthful of Baneling for its efforts.

The battle continued like that for a while before Zurvan elevated its head and began firing blasts of energy from its mouth. Sweetie responded in kind with blasts from her horn and more Banelings down its throat.

Zurvan roared in agony before Kerrigan blasted its head off and the two feasted on the ancient essence.

After savoring their victory, Kerrigan ordered Izsha to prepare the Leviathan for the return trip to the Koprulu Sector.

Swarm: Night of the Infested 2

The waves of power that Kerrigan released as a result of her rebirth into the Swarm were eventually felt by Broodmothers across the galaxy. When they felt the intensity of Kerrigan’s power, they began to believe that following Kerrigan again would be a better course of action than working alone.

The first of the Broodmothers to give up the independence of her brood was Kilysa. She commanded a small brood that specialized in strong Leviathans.

Kerrigan gave her the task of destroying a Dominion military production hub on the planet Mistaff IV in exchange for reintegrating with the Swarm. Kilysa complied with her request and infested the planet.

After talking to everyone in the command chamber, she returned to her personal chamber to adjust her abilities. Sweetie went to the evolution pit to talk with Abathur.

When the evolution master sensed Sweetie’s presence, he came out of his hole. He patiently waited for Sweetie to give him the reason for her visit.

“I’ve decided to give my own series of demonstrations of new strains for some of the types of Zerg at our disposal.”

“You? Spinning sequences is complex work. Not specialized in such work.”

Sweetie smirked and said, “Remember who made you? Who designed you to conduct such work? Whose knowledge is now mine?”

Abathur was showing signs of anger, “You will not steal purpose!”

“Relax Abathur, I only intend to use these abilities on my own Brood. I have no intention of allowing the essences of Equus to be used by the Swarm. In exchange, your purpose as Kerrigan’s evolution master will remain secure. Deal?”

Abathur stared at Sweetie for a moment before relenting, “Very well.”

A few minutes later, Kerrigan entered the evolution pit to see what was going on. When Sweetie told her about her own demonstration of new strains, Kerrigan seemed eager to see what her partner in crime was capable of.

Sweetie didn’t bother to name the planets that she used. The first planet she used was for her Zergling demonstration. A large Dominion base was nearby and Sweetie only sent a small number of Zerglings. Once she infused the essence she wanted to use with the Zerglings, the creatures mutated into something else. While they had insect wings like the Hunter Strain, they were also colored differently from each other.

What Kerrigan and Abathur saw next filled them with fascination as Zerglings started budding off other Zerglings and more Zerglings started budding off the new and old Zerglings. The new strain that Sweetie created made use of the Parasprite essence to give them the ability to multiply in the field. She called it the Mitosis Strain.

When the Zerglings charged into the Dominion base, the rate of multiplication started accelerating until twenty became forty, forty became eighty then a hundred and sixty.

By that point, the defenders of the Dominion base stared at the display with bulging eyes and jaws wide open. They knew they were toast when they tried to fire several shots from their Siege Tanks to reduce the numbers only for double to replace the ones they killed.

The Dominion was wiped out within a minute. When the combat situation ended, the Zerglings that were created by budding were killed, leaving only the original few.

“Impressive, an ability that makes full use of their strength in numbers,” Kerrigan said.

“Large quantities of biomass needed for ability. Where does biomass come from?” Abathur said.

Sweetie explained, “The Creep provides the biomass initially which makes them excellent base defenders. They can still multiply for a time while off the Creep but need biological targets to continue fueling their ability. The budded Zerglings have a limited lifespan to prevent an issue of overcrowding.”

Kerrigan and Abathur accepted Sweetie’s explanation and moved on to her Roach demonstration. A squadron of Marauders were investigating a disturbance at a Dominion weapons plant. Sweetie had planted a number of Roaches inside the plant in preparation for her demonstration.

When the Marauders left the area where the Roaches were burrowed, the creatures surfaced and Sweetie went to work on their genetic structure. Once the essence was infused, the Roaches transformed.

The end result was a hunter green carapace with light blue spikes. When the Marauders heard the Roaches surface, they headed back toward them. The squadron was slightly confused on the altered appearance before the Roaches started attacking them with their acid saliva. The Marauders prepared to retaliate when they realized, to their horror, that their suits were hardening at the joints. A few hits with the saliva and the Marauders ended up prisoners in their own suits of stone. The saliva melted off the stone armor and melted the human inside.

“Saliva contains mysterious properties. Unable to identify,” Abathur said.

“The species I used for the Roaches is called a Cockatrice, who have the ability to turn their victims to stone with a gaze. I took that property and applied it to the Roaches’ acidic saliva to gain a secondary effect of petrification. I call this the Gorgon Strain.”

“Cockatrice? I thought those only existed in Terran mythology,” Kerrigan said.

“I have a feeling that my world has a number of creatures that humans call myths,” Sweetie said.

Sweetie moved on to her third demonstration. A large number of Banelings were deployed for the next demonstration. This time, the Banelings were faced with a Dominion base guarded by a wing of Banshees. The fighters had already spotted the Banelings and were moving in. Sweetie worked fast and by the time the Banshees arrived, the glowing suicide bombers were somehow taking to the skies. The Banelings had grown large insect wings to allow for flight.

Because of their newfound flight capabilities, the Banshees were unable to fight back. The Banelings detonated on the crafts and melted through the metal, sending the ruined fighters into a nosedive into the ground.

The suicidal terrors moved upon the Dominion base and dive bombed the Dominion until the base was reduced to piles of acidic goo.

“Increased utility. Number of possible targets expanded due to flight capabilities,” Abathur said.

“I didn’t need to increase their offensive or defensive capabilities so I decided to use Pegasus essence to grant them flight capabilities,” Sweetie said.

When the demonstration ended, Kerrigan ordered the Leviathan to begin its month-long journey back to the Koprulu sector.

Before they left, however, the Swarm brought a Dominion communicator to Kerrigan’s attention.

The device suddenly activated and an image of Mengsk appeared above the communicator.

“The Queen of Blades. I knew you’d return to your true form. A monster. And I see the horse next to you decided to join you at long last.”

Sweetie had a wicked grin on her face. “I’m gonna enjoy breaking you and watching you scream in agony.”

“You’ll do no such thing, not if you care at all about Jim Raynor.”

“We’ll rescue him at some point. For now, I have to ask, how does it feel to be Narud’s pawn?”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me. Do you even realize that you’re funding an army of monsters that Narud plans to use to wipe out the entire universe, including you?”

“Those creatures were made for my protection. I am the one who pays for his research.”

Sweetie laughed hard after hearing the foolishness that came out of Mengsk’s mouth. Mengsk growled and ground his teeth at Sweetie’s behavior. When she finally calmed down, she continued, “The Moebius Foundation is nothing more than a cover for Narud’s universe-ending project. He’s playing you like a fiddle and you don’t even realize it. But don’t worry, Kerrigan and I will pay you a visit soon enough and put you out of your misery.” Sweetie deactivated the communicator for the time being.

During the journey, Abathur called Sweetie and Kerrigan to the evolution pit for another demonstration. This time it was for the Hydralisk. Sweetie and Abathur agreed to save time in the future by revealing their new strains at the same time.

Abathur went first. The first world was called Marek V. The hive cluster located there was under attack. The culprit was the Dominion’s infestation specialists: Prometheus Company.

Some old Impaler Colonies that were creations of the old Overmind were the targets that Abathur wanted to acquire. The Impaler Colony was said to be the precursor to Sunken Colonies which were precursors to Spine Crawlers.

Some Hydralisks were brought under Kerrigan’s control and were used to destroy the Impaler Colonies in the area. The essence gathered from the Colonies were incorporated into the Hydralisk genome. Once complete, the Hydralisks morphed into Impalers.

The Impalers used their long range capabilities to decimate Prometheus Company and their base.

Planet Cavir used to be the birthing colony for Daggoth’s Brood. The Brood was now feral since their master was killed at some point.

Kerrigan took control of some feral Lurkers and used them to deal with some feral Zerg. Kerrigan called on the services of Broodmother Kilysa to extract the Lurker Den essence for the Swarm while the Lurkers protected the Den from the feral Brood.

When asked why she didn’t simply control the feral Brood, Kerrigan responded by saying that she didn’t need Daggoth’s Brood for her plans.

It was time for Sweetie’s demonstration. Prometheus Company operated on another planet and was working on dealing with another hive cluster.

Sweetie saw some Hydralisks that just spawned from the besieged hive cluster’s hatchery and took control of them. She spun the sequences that she desired into the Hydralisk genome before morphing them into a new form.

Sweetie’s creation had eight legs connected together by a membrane. The neck was slightly elongated with scythe-like arms around the neck.

When Prometheus Company moved against the hive cluster, the creatures burrowed. What happened next was a large number of Hydralisk heads popping out of the ground next to the attackers. The group was startled into a panic as the many heads, at least five times more than the number of creatures that burrowed by Kerrigan’s calculations, attacked with overwhelming numbers.

The creatures retracted their heads and resurfaced before advancing on the Company’s main base. Once again the Terrans were startled into a panic as many heads attacked them. While the defenders were able to kill the heads, more heads popped out of the ground to replace the dead ones. Without detectors, the defenders fought a battle of futility until they were wiped out and the creatures were free to destroy the base.

“What do you call these?” Kerrigan asked.

“Scylla Strain,” Sweetie responded. “I used the essence of Hydras to make these.”

“The mythological creature that grew replacement heads every time one was cut off?”

“Eeyup.”

Kerrigan smirked. “I look forward to what you make in the future.”

Later, Sweetie was continuing her experiments on her Brood when someone she was expecting entered her chamber. “Ah,Ariel, come in,” she said.

Hanson shambled toward Sweetie. “What do you need?”

“I wish to make you an offer. I want to perform some alterations to your genetic code and give you a chance to at least look human again.”

Hanson was confused by what Sweetie said. “What do you mean by ‘at least look human’?”

Sweetie hesitated for a full minute before finally saying what she wanted, “In order to do this correctly, I have to replace your human genome with Changeling DNA so you can properly shapeshift into a human.”

Hanson was stunned by what Sweetie just said. “You want to take away the last of my humanity so I can fake being a human?”

Sweetie sighed, “Is being human genetically that important that you? Look at Kerrigan, she looks like a monster but she still loves Jim. She might have been genetically altered, but she’s still Sarah Kerrigan on the inside. I know that Lyra still loves me despite how I look.

“My point is, you are still Ariel Hanson, no matter what you look like. You’re still human on the inside even with the infestation and you will still be human in spirit even if I make you into a Changeling. Besides, even with what I can do, the process to remove your infestation would be a lot harder and more complex than simply altering your genetic code to something more compatible with Zerg essence. Do you think the risk of permanent genetic damage is worth being truly human?

“Anyway, I want to give you an opportunity. Sooner or later, I plan to return to Equus. I mentioned that our scientific knowledge could use some serious improvements. I plan to invite some brilliant minds to my homeworld to help spur the drive for scientific advancement. Your medical and bio-engineering knowledge would be highly beneficial to my people.”

“But, what about my family? While I don’t care much for my mother, I will miss my father dearly.”

“When the time comes, I will bring you to Haven to talk with your father. If you can convince him to live with you on Equus, that’s fine. You can still tell him what you intend to do so he won’t worry about you so much. If you refuse my offer, I can at least go through with the procedure to turn you into a Changeling so you can live with your father while able to hide your true form from everyone.”

Hanson thought long and hard about Sweetie’s offer. As much as she hated it, her mother was right about her needing to seize her life by the horns and decide what she truly wanted. If being a part of a project to advance science for a world that needed it would make a difference, she seriously considered taking it.

In the end, Hanson decided that she would take part in Sweetie’s project.

When the Leviathan returned to the Koprulu Sector, it was time to move against Mengsk. Sweetie, however, had another thought.

“We need to make sure that Narud doesn’t interfere with our invasion of Korhal. As strong as we are, we might be able to take him out of the picture.” Sweetie addressed Izsha. “Have you heard anything about Narud or the Hybrid?”

“One of our Broodmothers is picking up a strange psionic signal. It is Zerg, but not part of the Swarm.”

Izsha played the signal. “I know you seek to topple Mengsk. His alien soldiers, the Hybrid, are your greatest threat. If you wish to stop them, meet me at Skygeirr Station. I will send you the coordinates.”

Sweetie’s eyes went wide. “I recognize that voice! I haven’t heard from him ever since Jim turned him over to Narud after we reversed his infestation.”

“Sounds like the cure didn’t stick,” Kerrigan said.

The Leviathan set course for Skygeirr Station.

Kerrigan and Sweetie returned to the command chamber after waking from their slumber. They saw a person staring out at the station.

The person wore a black trenchcoat and a grey turtleneck. He wore a black glove on his right hand and wore black boots. His left arm was infested with Zerg tissue and he wore a black officer’s hat with gold decorations. The decoration was of a skull with wings as well as lightning bolts and a star.

“Glad to see you made it out of there alive, Stukov. Sorry we didn’t recognize Narud sooner. We could have saved you the torturous experience,“ Sweetie said.

Stukov chuckled. “Well, that was in the past. All that matters now is my own revenge. I plan to make Narud pay dearly for all the pain he brought upon me.”

Sweetie smiled. “Good, we came here to take Narud and his Hybrid out of the picture before we invade Korhal.”

“I will gladly provide any assistance I can to make sure that bastard gets what’s coming to him.”

After everyone said their opinions of Stukov, Kerrigan and Sweetie began their push into the station.

Stukov pointed out a lift into the depths of the station and that its the second most defended location in Dominion space.

Kerrigan decided that she wanted to use the Dominion marines against the defenders by bringing in some Infestors.

The defiling creatures planted a destructive Fungal Growth on some Marines which devoured the bodies within.

One Infestor moved to a nearby garrison and planted a Creep Tumor and released a Drone to mutate into a Virophage. Once the plaguebringer was ready, it started spraying the garrison with the Zerg Virus and infesting the Terrans within. The infested humans began advancing on the Dominion equipment.

A nearby Banshee was causing the infested some grief so an infestor launched a mind-controlling parasite that took over the pilot’s mind. The Banshee pilot began firing on a nearby Bunker.

The Infestors visited more garrisons to increase the waves of infested against the Dominion. Once the Dominion outpost was wiped out, Kerrigan and Sweetie set up their own hive clusters.

In response to the attack, the Dominion began releasing a special gas that was designed to kill Infested Terrans. Kerrigan and Sweetie as well as the other strains were immune to the gas.

During the time that the Gas was being released, the Dominion were launching counterattacks to deal with the Virophages. Sweetie handled the more distant garrisons by destroying the incoming Medivacs before they could drop their cargo. After scouting their immediate area, Sweetie discovered a retractable bridge that the Dominion may use as a shortcut into their hive cluster.

Anticipating a future attack from that venue, Sweetie created a few Scylla and made them burrow at one end to make sure the bridge was defended.

With Kerrigan spreading the Creep toward the Dominion forces, Sweetie spawned a number of her Zerglings to support Kerrigan in her next attack.

As the Infestors infested more garrisons, Sweetie spawned more Scylla to protect each location from Dominion attacks.

Infestors added heavy hitters into the fold by infecting the pilots of ships and mechs with parasites. The Dominion were slowly being overrun with or without the gas.

The Dominion were unfamiliar with Sweetie’s Scyllas and focused on killing heads which proved to be a fruitless endeavor. Sweetie’s Zerglings overwhelmed the Dominion defenses with massive numbers while the Creep continued to spread, feeding the Zerglings.

As per Stukov’s request, Kerrigan infested the Science Facilities to gain access to the biomass within.

When all of the available garrisons were infested and well defended by Sweetie’s Scyllas, there was nothing the Dominion could do against the vast numbers of Zerg and infested but retreat deeper into the facility and try to hold off the Zerg from a lower level.

Author's Note

Hope you enjoy the presentations of Zerg Strains crossed with the essences of Equus' species. The others will be revealed alongside the other evolution missions.

Swarm: An Old Friend

Sweetie and Kerrigan returned to the Leviathan to rest after their mission. During this time, Izsha informed Kerrigan that another Broodmother, Ryloth decided to return to the Swarm. Kerrigan ordered the Broodmother to attack a Dominion world called Jontur II that manufactured the newest ships.

Dehaka was not impressed with the construction of the station, believing that the only weapons and armor he needed would be his natural armor and his claws. Sweetie countered that there was more than one way to evolve; that the Terrans evolve through their technology.

Stukov had a talk with Sweetie, “When did you figure out that Narud and Duran were the same person?”

“The moment I met Narud. Apparently, he has this malevolent aura that he either can’t change or didn’t think anyone could sense. Either way, it was a dead giveaway. Not to mention the weak attempt at the name change by saying his name backwards.”

Stukov laughed for a moment. “I have to agree on that sentiment. For an ancient being who has changed his name many times over the millennia, this has the be his weakest attempt yet.” His expression became serious again. “Can you sense him within the station; this malevolent aura of his?”

“Yeah, I don’t know if he plans to run when we get to him or stand his ground in belief that his power alone is enough to handle us.”

“I hope Narud tries to fight. I want to see him suffer in pain and humiliation. I want him to pay for what he did to me and Gerard. My old friend must have been devastated when I was killed. I do not resent Kerrigan for killing Gerard. If he felt as I believe he did in his final moments, what she did could be seen as a mercy killing.”

Kerrigan approached Sweetie and Stukov. “You don’t resent me for finishing off the last of your fleet? You know that Duran was acting as my advisor at the time, right?”

Stukov chuckled, “He deceives everyone he considers useful or a threat or both.”

This time Sweetie chuckled, “Sounds like the Changelings from my world.” Sweetie had a brief thought of Narud and Chrysalis in a deception contest.

“It’s time to move out. We need to see what Narud has planned for us down in that lab,” Kerrigan said.

Sweetie and Kerrigan returned to the secured surface of the station with Stukov right behind them.

Sweetie, Kerrigan and Stukov boarded the elevator with a number of Drones and Zerglings.

The ride into the lower levels of the lab took a few minutes. In this time, each ran a number of scenarios in their heads about what might happen.

When the elevator ride ended, the Zerglings jumped a small group of Marines before a Drone moved in to morph into a Hatchery near some conveniently located minerals.

“Kerrigan, this lab houses the culmination of Narud’s research: the Hybrid. They are the ultimate weapon of the final war,” Stukov warned.

The sound of unlocking and moving machinery caught the hearing of the trio. This was followed by gunfire and an explosion. Kerrigan realized that the Hybrid were emerging from their stasis chambers.

Kerrigan and Sweetie began feeling the Hybrid attacking them psionically. Thinking fast, Sweetie created a barrier around herself and Kerrigan with her magic. Both immediately felt relief when the effect stopped.

“I can’t maintain this forever,” Sweetie said. “But I think I know of a way for my minions to handle the burden.” She stimulated her Hatchery and made it create a pair of Swarm Queens. Once spawned, the Swarm Queens began using the same barrier spell that Sweetie was using.

“I don’t recall our Swarm Queens being capable of this,” Kerrigan said.

“Yours can’t, mine can. I spun Unicorn essence into the Swarm Queen genome so they developed a mana wellspring and the capability of casting spells. I call this the Mage Strain.

“As long as we keep them near us, the Hybrid can’t remotely attack us.”

“Good. This will give us plenty of time to build up a sizeable force to deal with the Dominion and the Hybrid on this level.”

“If I had known that magic existed, I would have invested more time in fantasy novels,” Stukov quipped.

Since the Hybrid was unable to affect them, Kerrigan and Sweetie led an attack on the Dominion base near the Hybrid’s location.

Sweetie unleashed her multiplying Zerglings to draw attention away from the Roaches bringing up the rear. Kerrigan supported Sweetie’s attack with Aberrations and Mutalisks. Petrified Dominion made for fragile targets for the Aberrations.

The nearby Hybrid got impatient and frustrated that it was being ignored. It attempted to attack Sweetie and Kerrigan from behind but it decided to attack too late as the Zerg had already finished off the Dominion base, leaving the Hybrid to fend for itself.

While the petrifying bile from Sweetie’s Roaches wasn’t as effective against the Hybrid as other targets, it still made its movements sluggish. It tried to use a Psionic Shockwave to knock back the multiplying Zerglings but the numbers proved overwhelming for the abomination. A psionic EM Shot from Sweetie quickly disabled its shields and left its flesh to be torn apart before the creature succumbed to its wounds and faded in a psionic blaze.

Narud had just noticed the intruders in the lab and made himself heard through telepathy, “You are not welcome here, Kerrigan and Sweetie Drops.”

“Not going to run away like last time?” Sweetie replied.

“I could have destroyed you and Lyra Heartstrings back then. I will correct that mistake.”

Izsha warned everyone that Narud was awakening more Hybrid in the lab. Sweetie didn’t want the Swarm Queens to exhaust themselves to maintain the barriers for herself and Kerrigan so she spawned more Swarm Queens to ease the burden on the others.

Another Hybrid emerged from its cell southwest of the hive cluster and tried in vain to attack Kerrigan and Sweetie psionically.

The Hybrid was ignored for the time being while the Queens secured the northwest portion of the lab.

A small outpost of Dominion guarded another cluster of resources. The outpost was easily wiped out and the resources claimed for the Swarm.

Kerrigan noticed a small group of Dominion that looked like they were guarding something. Sweetie teleported behind the guards to take a look and saw another Hybrid cell. She telepathically relayed the information to Kerrigan who sent her Aberrations to take out the guards before their forces moved in and attacked the prison.

When the cell was smashed, the Hybrid was rudely awakened but the Swarm had an advantage over the abomination as it tried to fully awaken before being able to fight at full strength. Unfortunately for it, the Swarm had already dealt too much damage to it before it could fully awaken. It barely put up a fight before it suffered the same fate as the first.

Stukov decided to jump in on the action by creating his own force and go after the already awakened Hybrid. The Dominion defense near the Hybrid were ready to fight to the death so Stukov granted them their wish by attacking with his minions and adding some Infested Marines for good measure.

Stukov’s forces went after the Hybrid and began attacking its shield. The Hybrid retaliated with its immense psionic power while Stukov weakened it by launching corrosive bolts to damage it. When the Hybrid was destroyed, the Swarm secured a large portion of the lab.

On the way back to the hive cluster, Sweetie and Kerrigan took a detour to free a captive Brutalisk to add to their fighting power. With that, everyone returned to the hive cluster to momentarily recuperate.

Their rest ended when another Hybrid woke up. Since a Dominion base guarded it, Sweetie, Kerrigan and Stukov combined their forces and unleashed a powerful force of Zerg against the base, decimating the Dominion and killing the Hybrid in the process.

Another Brutalisk prison was nearby so the trio decided to make another powerful friend.

Narud resorted to taunting as his frustrations noticeably increased. This only served to amuse Sweetie and Kerrigan.

The Swarm found a nearby Hybrid cell shortly before it started to awaken. Sweetie’s EM Shot nearly eliminated the challenge from the creature.

Sweetie noticed a nearby Dominion base had a Ghost Academy. Since the TNOD on her rifle detected a Nuke inside, a wicked smirk appeared on Sweetie’s face.

“What are you up to?” Kerrigan asked.

“Mischief,” Sweetie replied simply.

Sweetie took out her rifle and pointed it at the Dominion base.

“What is she doing?” Stukov asked.

“Hijacking a Nuke,” Kerrigan responded.

Stukov looked toward the nearby Ghost Academy and noticed a Nuke was launched from it. Moments later, the same missile landed in the middle of the base, severely damaging it. The Swarm finished off the rest of the base.

Izsha revealed that the last two Hybrid were right next to each other. The remaining Dominion base was also near the Hybrid pair. The Swarm dealt with the remaining two Hybrid before tearing down the Dominion base. Sweetie also dropped a Nuke on that base.

What no one was expecting was for the nuke to blast open a hidden door. Since there were no more enemies left on the level, the trio decided to check it out.

What they saw was hardly a surprise for them. There were humans in saline tanks that were being used for experimentation. Several of the subjects were infested while some of those had chunks of flesh torn from them to be used for studies.

However, one of the subjects who was at the end of the room caught Kerrigan’s and Stukov’s attention. Inside was a man who wore clothes that were similar to Stukov’s. While it was unusual for a person to be wearing clothes in a saline tank, the infested growth on his right arm would prevent any attempt at removing the clothes without ruining them.

Stukov lost touch with the world around him as he stared at the tank and put a hand on it. He spent five minutes staring before finally whispering a word: a name.

“Gerard…”

Author's Note

This will be the only time I introduce a new strain outside of an evolution mission.

Swarm Queen + Unicorn = Spellcasting Swarm Queens

While they are capable of casting numerous spells, I will only be mentioning one or two throughout the story.

Also, remember when DuGalle got abducted at the end of Brood War? Now you know where he's been since then.

Swarm: Rematch

It took a while longer for Stukov to regain his composure after seeing his old friend floating in a tank.

Sweetie and Kerrigan looked at each other and sighed, “Looks like we’re taking him back to the Leviathan whether we like it or not,” Sweetie said.

Stukov unhooked any cables and clamps holding the tank in place so Sweetie could safely remove it and carry it with her back to the Leviathan.

After releasing DuGalle from the tank on the Leviathan, the Admiral was left in a corner of the command chamber while Stukov took care of him.

Kerrigan and Sweetie heard the opinions from the others about Narud. Dehaka was concerned about Narud’s master, Amon who would claim all essence in the universe for himself. Zagara was confident that her Queens could take on Narud. Izsha was more concerned about the Tal’darim force protecting Narud and how they worship Amon.

“The Tal’darim are a tragic sort, really. They actually believe that they will ascend to become Xel’naga if they worship Amon. They don’t want to believe the cold, hard truth: Amon is lying to them,” Sweetie said.

“That makes them even more dangerous,” Kerrigan responded. Sweetie nodded.

While they were waiting for DuGalle to recover, Abathur called Sweetie and Kerrigan to the evolution pit to introduce the modifications he made to the Mutalisks.

Part of Sweetie hoped that her own designs for the Mutalisk were not going too far…

Abathur wanted Kerrigan to choose which essence she wanted spun into the Mutalisk Strain. The choice was between the Brood Lords or the Primal Viper essence.

With that, the demonstration began. The Queens’ minds were projected toward a Dominion defense platform at Sigma Centari, where he located some feral Brood Lords.

Without the Brood Lords, the Zerg on the platform were at a stalemate against some Dominion Missile Turrets. Kerrigan directed a small group of Mutalisks to hunt down and devour the feral Brood Lords. Only a pair of Mutalisks escorted the hulking flyers and they were outnumbered by Kerrigan’s Mutalisks. Since the Brood Lords couldn’t attack flyers, they were easy prey and devoured as easily.

Once Abathur was finished working on them, the Mutalisks had a change in appearance. Purple pustules appeared on their backs and the membrane of their wings took on a bright green appearance.

The Mutalisks were quickly morphed into Brood Lords before Abathur provided more Mutalisks as air support. The Brood Lords launched Broodlings at the Missile Turrets from outside the Turrets’ range. While the Dominion focused on the Broodlings, the Brood Lords continued launching more. The Vikings converted to fighter mode to deal with the Brood Lords but there were too few to handle the Mutalisk escort. The Dominion sent in drop pods as a last ditch effort to save themselves but the Broodlings were too distracting for the reinforcements.

The Dominion were soon overrun.

The next planet was Brokas Hur, a Dominion storage world. The first thing noticed was a transport carrying Jorium crystals being guarded by a squadron of Dominion.

Abathur researched the Primal essences and managed to modify the Mutalisks based on that. The Viper Strain was the end result. Abathur sent a few Aberrations to support the Vipers. The dragonfly-like terrors latched a tendril onto each of the Aberrations and pulled them to them. A lone Siege Tank was situated on a small plateau. The Vipers yanked the Siege Tank off the plateau and into the waiting claws of the Aberrations.

After dealing with a couple more Siege Tanks, a lone Bunker was their next obstacle. The Vipers sprayed a cloud over the Bunker and left it helpless against the Aberrations’ assault.

Abathur delivered more Aberrations while Kerrigan had the Vipers pull them up a cliff. She then had them blind the last Dominion defenses with a cloud while the Aberrations dealt with the defenders while the Vipers shot down the Wraiths. Once the Jorium cargo was secured, Abathur’s demonstration ended.

Sweetie convinced Kerrigan to choose the Viper Strain for the tactical possibilities.

Next it was Sweetie’s turn to show everyone something. Sweetie’s demonstration involved a Dominion boot camp that trained a large number of infantry for future missions. The defenses around the camp were tight, but the outskirts were where the Dominion split into groups and did their survival training.

Sweetie called down a number of Mutalisks near one of the campsites. Her Mutalisks had slightly larger wings than the usual variety along with a longer body and extra limbs that ended in razor-sharp claws.

When Sweetie mutated them, their appearance was about as large as a Brood Lord with a thick body, powerful limbs, glowing green pustules on their backs, large, thick wings, and a large mouth with a huge underbite that was dripping with green ooze that burned whatever it landed on when it escaped its mouth.

Sweetie had her new Strain attack the first campsite. By the time the Dominion noticed, the beasts were already upon them. Their final moments was a sight of green flames before they rose again as mindless infested.

The beasts attacked the camps one by one and the number of infested were bolstered. Once ready, the infested troops moved against the boot camp. With the infested distracting the infantry, the beasts moved in and converted more troops into infested. The few Vikings in the camp lifted off to deal with the new Strain of Zerg. They weren’t counting on their claws being powerful enough to easily tear through metal.

Once the Vikings were dealt with, the creatures continued unleashing their plague on the unfortunate Dominion trainees. Sweetie’s demonstration ended when the camp was overrun with infested.

“I call these Blight Dragons. I combined Dragon essence along with the essence for those Virophages to create a strain that infest Dominion infantry along with powerful claws that would be the bane of any flying enemy. In the case of Protoss or Zerg enemies, while the viral breath wouldn’t infest them, the breath is still corrosive and will melt Zerg or burn down Protoss.”

“Deadly combination. Combining multiple sequences to create powerful weapon for Brood. Can sense that more control is necessary to keep in line,” Abathur said.

“Yeah, though about the same as a Protoss or Terran capital ship. These guys would be a good answer to those kinds of ships.”

Although Abathur didn’t express it, Kerrigan and Sweetie could tell that the evolution master was showing signs of jealousy.

The duo left Abathur to his feelings and returned to the command chamber to check on Stukov and DuGalle.

The two returned to find that DuGalle was awake and standing. He appeared to be checking his surroundings.

“I have informed Gerard about his situation. He is taking it as well as can be expected,” Stukov said.

DuGalle turned around to address the two Queens, his voice carrying the usual distortion that all Zerg have, “Ah, Kerrigan, we meet again. According to Alexei, it’s been four and a half years since our last encounter.”

“What happened to you? Last I remember, you and your ships turned tail and headed back for Earth. My Swarm made sure there was nothing left of your fleet. How did you survive?” Kerrigan asked.

“After my last defeat, I was a broken man. I was ready to join Alexei and go out on my own terms instead of awaiting my end like waiting for an executioner. Before I could pull the trigger, however, my body froze up and I heard the voice of the last person I ever expected to show up in my quarters: Duran. My memory of the last four years were a blur as my consciousness had drifted in and out. During those times of awareness, I felt nothing but pain; pain beyond anything I had ever felt in all my life.

“To think, the very creatures that the United Earth Directorate were sent here to tame, and I end up becoming one in the end. The irony is not lost on me, Kerrigan.”

“Rest for now, Gerard. Kerrigan, Sweetie and I will make sure that bastard pays for what he did to us,” Stukov said.

“Sweetie?” DuGalle looked at Sweetie. “If I recall, you were James Raynor’s second in command. With or without the infestation, you still look less human than myself, Alexei or Kerrigan.”

“I’ll explain later. For now, we have an evil shapeshifter to kill.”

With that, Kerrigan, Sweetie and Stukov left the Leviathan to return to the lower depths of Skygeirr Station.

Once the depths had been breached, Kerrigan, Stukov and Sweetie began encountering Tal’darim. Sweetie killed the few nearby by destroying their shields then impaling them on her tentacles.

Moving deeper into the facility, the trio encountered the beaten and bloodied remains of an Ultralisk. “A shame. This Ultralisk might have been useful,” Stukov said. Abathur corrects Stukov by saying that the beast’s essence was important. By manipulating its essence, the Ultralisk was revived and broke free of its bonds.

The group, now including Ultralisks, tore their way through the meager Tal’darim in their way.

Kerrigan discovered something unusual about the lab they tore through: it was built on top of a Xel’naga temple.

Narud suddenly made his presence known to everyone before unleashing a shadow of his true form and firing a Null Zone directly at Kerrigan who pushed back with her own power.

Stukov discovered that Narud was amplifying his power with some nearby temples. Kerrigan ordered Stukov to destroy the temples, to which he gladly complied.

Stukov got his hive cluster set up first before Sweetie eliminated some Tal’darim near a second location so she could set up her hive cluster.

Since time was against them, both had to work fast to get a strong force ready to deal with the Protoss. Stukov got a force of Zerglings, Hydralisks, Roaches and Ultralisks. Sweetie prepared a force to defend Stukov as he began deactivating temples, mainly using Scyllas. She also prepared an air force to deal with the Tal’darim while Stukov went around deactivating temples. She created an air force composed of Mutalisks and Blight Dragons.

Stukov cleared the area around the first temple and began deactivating it. Sweetie quickly had her Scylla burrow around Stukov to ward off the Tal’darim. Narud sent a Hybrid to stop Stukov but became distracted by Scylla heads. The Ultralisks assisted in the defense and tore the Hybrid apart. Stukov deactivated the temple in peace.

Sweetie was assisted by Stukov spreading the Creep all around the area and allowing her to use her Zerglings to multiply and face the Tal’darim forces. Using the opportunity, Sweetie used her Zerglings, Mutalisks and Blight Dragons to attack one of the main Tal’darim bases in the area. The Blight Dragons soon dominated the skies and rained acid on the unfortunate Protoss who were busy trying to put a dent in the Zergling numbers but were soon overwhelmed and overrun.

While Sweetie was having her fun, Stukov deactivated a second temple and shattered a crystal that Izsha said that Narud was using to store psionic energy.

After the first base was leveled, Sweetie found a nearby temple and decided to make her own attempt to deactivate it. Turned out that deactivating the temple was easy. Narud sent Tal’darim and Hybrid to defend the temple only for the Protoss to be overwhelmed by Zerglings and the Hybrid impaled numerous times by tentacles until they faded into shadow.

Narud began to grow desperate.

While Stukov focused on the fourth temple, Sweetie gathered a few more Zerglings, Mutalisks and Blight Dragons, taking advantage of the ever-expanding Creep, and moved against the other Tal’darim base in the area. Once again the strength in numbers and power were too much for the blind worshippers of Amon.

Since Sweetie was so successful, Stukov gave Sweetie the honors of dealing with the last temple while he and his forces shattered the remaining psionic crystals.

Once Sweetie deactivated the last temple, Kerrigan easily overpowered Narud’s Null Zone and drove it back at him, leaving him greatly weakened.

Kerrigan and Sweetie, who insisted on accompanying her, pursued Narud into his inner sanctum.

“Face me, Narud. It’s over,” Kerrigan said.

“It is only beginning. Amon whispered of this from the stars,” Narud responded. “He told you of his return. He told you of ruin, extinction. The end of all things.”

“And we will deal with him when the time comes,” Sweetie countered.

“Is that what you think?” Narud said in Raynor’s voice.

Kerrigan and Sweetie saw Narud in Raynor’s form. While Kerrigan hesitated, Sweetie didn’t and punched Narud hard into a wall.

“How cruel can you be to punch one of your friends without hesitation?” Narud asked.

“Maybe I’ve always wanted to punch him,” Sweetie said innocently.

Narud pulled himself out of the wall but not before Kerrigan regained her composure and charged at him while summoning a Nydus Worm to devour him. He countered by charging a sphere of void energy and detonated it in the beast’s maw, Killing the worm and sending him flying to the floor.

Kerrigan landed on Narud and started punching him in the face before he transformed into a version of Kerrigan from before she was infested.

Noticing that she was hesitating, Sweetie pulled Kerrigan off Narud with her telekinesis before he could counterattack. Narud slowly got back up. Noticing that Sweetie was approaching, he transformed into Lyra. He gave a saddened look, “Bonnie…” he said.

Sweetie walked up to the lookalike and before he could strike, she smiled as she placed her fingers on his chest to confuse him and whispered two words into his ear, “Nice try.”

This was immediately followed by a number of tentacles extending from Sweetie’s fingers and piercing Narud’s body and wrapping themselves around all of his internal organs and crushing them all at once.

With one last gasp, Narud faded out of existence.

Author's Note

Introducing the Blight Dragon. Against air units it's like a flying Ultralisk. Against ground units, its breath applies a damage over time effect. If a Terran unit dies while the effect is active, it becomes an infested unit under Zerg control.

Swarm: Rescuing Raynor

As Kerrigan, Sweetie and Stukov were leaving the facility, Kerrigan decided to get a nagging question off her chest, “How were you not caught off guard by Narud shapeshifting into Jim or Lyra. I thought you were close to them.”

Sweetie smiled, “I am. But there was one thing he didn’t count on: my world has Changelings that possess a similar ability to what Narud displayed. The agency I worked for knew about the existence of Changelings from well before they attempted to invade our capital city. We trained to deal with a potential threat from that race, including how to maintain focus when they try to imitate our loved ones to catch us off guard. Takes a lot of mental fortitude to pull that off.”

“So, you worked for an agency on your world?” Stukov asked. “If your skills were even half as good as what I heard about you, some of the agencies that once existed on Earth would have gone to war with each other to obtain your skills. KGB, CIA, MI6 would have been among those who would have desired your skills. But alas, that is not the time we live anymore.”

Sweetie chuckled, “Thanks for the compliment anyway.”

Stukov continued, “Narud is dead and the Hybrid lab destroyed. Myself and Gerard are the final loose ends. What do you have planned for us?”

“That’s up for you to decide. If it’s purpose that you two are seeking, I have a project that I will be working with Lyra in the future if the two of you want to be a part of it.”

“What kind of project is it?”

“It’s still in the planning stages so I can’t give any details yet.”

“I see...I will talk with Gerard about this and find out what he thinks.”

With the station destroyed and Mengsk cut off from support from the Moebius Foundation, the Swarm began departing from the ruined station.

Since Raynor’s location was still unknown, Sweetie and Kerrigan decided to pursue the only lead they had.

With any luck, the crew of the Hyperion would know where to look.

Since she had nothing better to do, Lyra wandered around the bridge of the Hyperion playing with a handheld game system she found. Matt and Valerian monitored some strange energy signatures that suddenly showed up while Tychus was limited in ship access to his room and the cantina after he got into another bar fight and was deemed untrustworthy to be around any delicate instruments. Tosh lurked around the ship trying to keep informed about what goes on around the ship.

Matt and Valerian received a psychic to electronic transmission that came from the unclassifiable energy signature. On the screen appeared Kerrigan and Sweetie. Matt and Valerian were stunned by their appearances. “Kerrigan! What happened to you? And Sweetie, not you too…”

Kerrigan spoke first, <”There’s no time. Listen carefully. Jim is alive and I can’t find him. But you can. Hack into the Dominion network and figure out where they’re holding him.”>

Matt and Valerian discussed the matter of finding Jim. Matt mentioned that only someone with Colonel Orlan’s skills could hack the Dominion network. And he was being held by Mira Han.

Sweetie gave a wicked smirk, <”So, you ask her on a date yet?”>

Matt growled, “Can you please drop that?”

<”I will when you finally ask her out.”>

Matt groaned.

“Mira Han, this is Prince Valerian. Do you read me?”

After spending some time finding Han’s frequency, Matt and Valerian finally had some luck in locating her.

Mira’s image appeared on screen, <”Of course I do, Princess. I know you’re working with Matthew. Put him on please,”> she said with a hint of a serious tone.

“You forget yourself, Mercenary.” Valerian responded.

Matt walked up to the screen to address Han.

<“Matthew. You never write, you never call. It’s almost like you don’t care.”>

“It’s hard to forget you with Sweetie occasionally pestering me about taking you out on a date. Anyway, I’m here to ask for your help. You’ve got Colonel Orlan and we need him. He’s the only man who can hack the Dominion’s deep-encryption network.”

<”Well I’d love to help. I just need the permission of James Raynor or Sweetie Drops.”>

Matt had the communications officer open a channel to the Leviathan and requested Sweetie’s presence. When the communication turned three-way, Han gasped as she looked upon Sweetie’s new form. <”My my, Sweetie, with those wings you certainly fit your codename better than before,”> Han said.

Sweetie smiled, <”Thanks. I heard that you needed my permission to release Colonel Orlan to the Raiders. Yes, I do give permission for Matthew to use Orlan as he sees fit.”>

Matt growled, “You’re doing this on purpose.” Sweetie appeared innocent. “Fine...one date. But only after Mengsk is removed from power, since I’m sure that Kerrigan will be heading to Korhal once we save Jim.”

Han smiled with glee, <”Ah, Matthew, I was worried you would never ask. In that case, I shall have Orlan delivered to you posthaste.”>

While waiting for the Raiders to decrypt the Dominion network, Izsha tells Kerrigan that the remaining Broodmothers were ready to rejoin the swarm. Kerrigan ordered each of them to eliminate a Dominion stronghold before allowing them back to the Swarm.

Sweetie noticed Dehaka was on edge because there was no essence around for him to collect and ended up in a fight with Zagara. Kerrigan had to break up the fight.

Kerrigan was also edgy about finding Raynor that she told Valerian to hurry with the decryption in a threatening way. Sweetie decided to step in because it was obvious that Kerrigan was a poor excuse for a diplomat.

Once Orlan discovered Raynor’s location, Matt relayed the info to Kerrigan.

Raynor was being held on the Moros, a mobile prison ship that jumped to random locations every hour. The ship was scheduled to resupply tomorrow at a place called Atlas Station.

While Tosh volunteered to infiltrate the ship, Kerrigan decided to handle the rest by herself, though Sweetie insisted on coming with her since Raynor was her friend.

The next day, the Hyperion and Leviathan arrive at Atlas Station to find the Moros still fueling as scheduled. To prevent the prison ship from escaping, the Leviathan extended its tentacles into the ship’s hull to prevent the ship from making any jumps.

Sweetie and Kerrigan emerged from the tip of one of the Leviathan’s tentacles and into the ship. “We’re in,” Sweetie said.

Valerian offered his assistance by providing any tactical info that he could to the duo.

Sweetie noticed that they had entered the ship’s cargo bay. Since there was nothing of interest, the cargo was left alone.

The next room had a large number of infantry investigating a noise to find a Baneling flying in their direction. Before they could react, the explosive creature detonated and sprayed acid over a few of the guards. Kerrigan cut through a few more with her Psionic Shift. Sweetie impaled the rest of the Dominion group.

During the fight, a Leviathan tentacle pierced the room and delivered more Zerg to assist.

One guard ahead hit an alarm and retracted a bridge to prevent the Zerg from crossing. After Sweetie melted some Marines with a Baneling Grenade, the Zerg entered a passage next to the bridge.

A number of guards were clumped together in the passage which made Sweetie’s Baneling Grenade more effective. The results showed as the guards melted into goo on the floor.

The Zerg killed more Dominion guards along the passageway and received reinforcements along the way.

A Thor along with infantry and a pair of Bunkers with turrets were in the way. Since Infestors were brought along, one took control of the Thor before Sweetie wiped out the infantry with a Baneling. Sweetie emptied the Bunkers by impaling the Marines within each before jumping on a Bunker, ripping out the turret and hurling it at the other Bunker.

A large bulkhead door was their next obstacle. Kerrigan began using her psionic power to melt the door. Meanwhile, Zagara sent more Zerg to protect Kerrigan.

Given the small space the Dominion guards came from for each of the four other doors in the room, Sweetie made effective use of her Baneling Grenades and Impaling Tentacles.

Ever since Sweetie became part Zerg, she was sometimes struck with pangs of hunger and cravings for food that were unusual for Ponies. Izsha informed her that as she used her biological abilities like her Baneling Grenades, she would develop cravings for biomass which would weaken her abilities until she satisfied her cravings.

At first, she was repulsed at the thought of devouring other Zerg to restore her strength, but after some encouragement from Kerrigan, Sweetie was able to devour a Zergling. What disturbed Sweetie even more than the thought, was the fact that the Zergling was delicious.

While the Leviathan was returning from Zerus, Sweetie practiced her abilities while getting used to eating other Zerg to recover her strength. It took the whole month of the trip to get used to it, but she managed to make eating meat second nature. Of course, she can still survive off a normal Pony’s diet as long as she doesn’t use her biological abilities, which wasn’t an option when fighting wars in space.

While the minions were going after another group of Dominion guards, Sweetie grabbed one of the Zerglings and quickly devoured it.

Sweetie finished the incoming guards by impaling them just as Kerrigan finished melting the door.

The next section had a large number of guards and some prisoner cell blocks ahead. Matt made a request to Sweetie and Kerrigan to retrieve a prisoner log that was nearby. Since it was close, Sweetie eliminated the guards and grabbed the log which turned out to be only half of the registry.

Kerrigan moved ahead and cleared out more guards before Sweetie caught up. Taking advantage of the number of prisoners in the area, Kerrigan planted Virophages to unleash infested upon the guards ahead. Sweetie assisted with magic blasts from her horn that caused a lot of destruction. Enemy Thors in the area were mentally dominated by Infestors then turned against the other guards.

At the end of the path was an elevator with a coupling in the very back. The officer in charge ordered the coupling destroyed to jettison the prison deck where Kerrigan and Sweetie suspected Raynor was located.

Sweetie teleported on top of the Thor attacking the coupling before smashing into the cockpit and pulling out the pilot, and hurling him at the other guards. The distraction allowed Kerrigan an easier time dealing with the guards.

<”Kerrigan, Sweetie, I did not think you two would be so foolish as to come here. And now, your actions will lead to the death of all these brave men.”> Mengsk said over the PA system. He remotely activated a self-destruct feature on the ship. <”They are all heroes, willing to sacrifice their lives in order to end your miserable existence. You and James Raynor can burn together.”>

Valerian yelled something about the Moros tearing itself apart while Sweetie and Kerrigan were riding the elevator to the lower level.

“I would say Mengsk has gone off the deep end, but given his past, I’d say this is par for the course,” Sweetie quipped.

Since they were now in a rush, Sweetie self-adjusted her genetics to utilize the Blight Dragon's breath ability. By unleashing it on some guards, Sweetie gained reinforcements in the form of infested guards who helped push past more of the enemy defenses.

Kerrigan ordered her minions to tear down another bulkhead. Sweetie hurled a few Baneling Grenades at the door to soften it up.

Once through, the Zerg pushed through several groupings of guards and found the remaining portion of the prisoner log.

Kerrigan and Sweetie could sense that Raynor was close. After a couple more groups of guards, another bulkhead and gaining even more reinforcements, the Zerg finally reached Raynor’s cell.

Kerrigan had Zagara order the Leviathan stabilize the part of the ship they were in. Once done, Kerrigan blasted the door open.

“A little reckless, don’t you think? Jim might have been where you pushed that door into,” Sweetie said.

Kerrigan walked into Raynor’s cell to find that he was a little dazed from her forceful entry.

Raynor was sitting at the far end of the cell when he saw Kerrigan, in his dazed state he thought the girl of his dreams had come to rescue him. That vision turned into a nightmare when he saw her in her Zerg state. “No…”

“I had to get you out,” Kerrigan said.

Raynor gave her a withering gaze, “What have you done?” he said in a disdainful tone.

“What I had to.”

Sweetie walked into the cell and caught Raynor’s gaze. “Sweetie, not you too.”

“Before you get judgemental, Jim, I had intended to do this since Meinhoff. I needed the power to face Amon’s army. I couldn’t just go on relying on nearby Nukes or convenience of Zerg or even mercenaries if I wanted to face down the Hybrid.

Raynor growled, “What you do in the pursuit of power is your deal but why did you have to drag Sarah into this mess again?”

“It was my choice, Jim.” Kerrigan said.

Raynor was only becoming more angry. It was time for a lecture. Sweetie took a deep breath. “Why don’t you stop being selfish and listen. Let’s face it, your plan to run away with a Kerrigan free of infestation was idiotic at best. Running away from this war against the Dominion was never an option and you know it. You know that Mengsk will start blowing up planets like a psychopath until he finds the planet that you and Kerrigan are on. He would drive his own Dominion into economic collapse if it meant getting to you.

“What happened to the revolutionary James Raynor who swore to take down Mengsk and protect humanity from his madness? Was Warfield right? Are you the type to hide under a rock when the going gets tough?

“Now, let’s assume you still want to bring down Mengsk. Let’s be realistic, our rebel organization doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in Tartarus in throwing a successful coup. You and I both know that nothing short of that is going to get Mengsk off the throne. We need the Swarm to pull off a stunt like that. And the Swarm will only obey Kerrigan if she is as she is now.

“You may think that only I needed to become Zerg to lead the Swarm against Mengsk and you would be right. But what would I do with an entire Swarm when the Universe is finally safe from Amon? I don’t need the entire Swarm to fulfill my goals; just a single Brood would do.

“The biggest reason that Kerrigan chose to become Zerg, however, was that she wasn’t about to let someone else take her revenge from her. You and I know both know that nothing in this Universe will keep her from her vengeance and I will make sure she gets it so she can finally turn her attention to Amon.

“The only way you’re getting your happily ever after with Kerrigan is after Mengsk and Amon are eliminated once and for all. If you want your future with Kerrigan, then help us in our all or nothing operation to take out Mengsk.”

Finally finished with her lecture, Sweetie left the cell with Kerrigan. Raynor was not far behind. He was quiet the whole way back to the Leviathan. The Hyperion used docking tubes to bridge the ship and the Leviathan so that Raynor could return to his ship.

Raynor remained silent.

Swarm: Vengeance Part 2

While Zagara was leading her Brood into Augustgrad, Sweetie and Kerrigan retreated to the Leviathan to regroup and rest before the next part of the operation.

Kerrigan had some reasonable doubts about whether she will survive the invasion of Korhal, but Sweetie had faith that they would pull through. Kerrigan had known Mengsk long enough to know that he would stop at nothing to save his own skin, even if he had to sell out his own people to rule over what was left.

“Sweetie,” Kerrigan began, “If anything should happen to me, you will be the one to lead the Swarm. I know that you would prefer to stick with your own Brood, but the Swarm needs a leader. However, if you feel Zagara is ready to lead, you can let her have the Swarm if you wish.”

“Once the coming war against Amon is over, I intend to return to my homeworld and tie up any loose ends before I figure out how I can use my Brood to make my world a better place,” Sweetie responded.

“You intend to use that former human scientist to help you with your plans?”

“That’s one way.”

Kerrigan had a talk with Dehaka and discussed how much of an advantage having no psionic link would have against Mengsk. Dehaka boasted that he didn’t need the psionic link.

Abathur had time for one adjustment to the Swarm during the invasion and it was time for Sweetie to reveal one of her most devastating weapons to the Swarm.

In the evolution pit, Abathur awaited Kerrigan and Sweetie before demonstrating the improvements made to the Ultralisk Strain. The duo prepared to project their vision to Abathur’s target locations, which, unsurprisingly, turned out to be on Korhal.

The first location was a Dominion research facility that was codenamed: Metis. Kerrigan saw a lone Ultralisk specimen being restrained and guarded by a single Marine. When she ordered the beast to break free, it tore its restraints apart and sliced apart the unfortunate guard.

After killing a few more guards ahead, it found a couple more Ultralisk being restrained before breaking free, breaking open some containers of deadly gas in the process. Abathur saw great potential in the gas and bonded the compound into the Ultralisks’ genetic sequences, creating the Noxious Strain: a strain that adds poison to their attacks.

The Noxious Ultralisks went on a rampage throughout the lab while slicing and melting unfortunate guards into puddles of goo.

When the door into the facility was busted open, the guards outside were caught by surprise as a group of Ultralisks broke through and engaged the guards.

With the task complete, Abathur shifted everyone’s focus to a different battleground.

On the outskirts of Augustgrad, there was a plaza that housed military personnel and supplies. The plaza also held a Science Facility that housed experimental nuclear weapons.

A trio of Ultralisks advanced on a bridge guarded by Bunkers, Marines and a Siege Tank. When the Ultralisks moved against the defenses, Arcturus demanded that the scientists launch one of their experimental Nuclear Missiles on the beasts. The missile hardly did any damage at all against the Ultralisks.

Abathur analyzed the radioactive compound that was released with the Nuke and infected the Ultralisks. Finding a use for it, Abathur integrated the compound with an atrophied evolutionary path to revive the Torrasque Strain.

For some reason, the bridge in front of the Ultralisks activated, allowing the beasts to cross.

After dealing with a few more troops, Arcturus had another Nuclear missile launched which killed the Ultralisks, except that they reverted into cocoons and reemerged as good as new.

The Ultralisks continued rampaging through the district while Arcturus continued dropping Nukes all over the area.

Abathur delivered more Ultralisks to assist in attacking the defenses around the Science Facility. Taking advantage of their ability to revive themselves, the Ultralisks soon accomplished their task.

Once the demonstration ended, Kerrigan decided on the Noxious Strain for her battle against the Dominion.

The time had come for Sweetie to reveal her powerful weapon against the Dominion.

A heavily defended weapons manufacturing plant was Sweetie’s target. A large number of Siege Tanks defended the only entrance into the factory. Regular Ultralisks could not even get close to the defending Siege Tanks. While she could have unleashed her Blight Dragons against such a defense, Sweetie wanted to show what her Ultralisks were capable of.

The new Ultralisks that Sweetie sent were about seventy-five percent larger, had a humanoid torso as well as longer arms that ended in their trademark Monarch Blades which were larger to match the proportions of their new forms.

Once a beast got in the range of the Siege Tanks, it slammed its massive blades on the ground and sent a shockwave that momentarily disoriented the tank drivers long enough for the Ultralisk to get into range and start slashing away at the numerous Siege Tanks. By the time the drivers were focused again, another massive Ultralisk came in from behind the first one and unleashed a shockwave of its own. Since the two were massive, the shockwave didn’t affect the first Ultralisk. The two managed to cut down the large battery of Siege Tanks before a third showed up and smashed the weapons factory apart.

“While I admit that the massive bulk makes them more difficult to mass spawn, Only a few are really needed to cause such devastation. The tremors they create would allow them to easily breach most defensive emplacements. Their enhanced armor and massive size also makes them much more difficult to bring down than the average Ultralisk.”

“What do you call this strain?” Kerrigan asked.

“I call it the Colossus Strain. The essence used in making this one was no doubt a challenge for Discord to obtain. There’s only one being that I know that would have the essence capable of creating Ultralisks like this and he nearly destroyed an entire nation.”

“Admission: envy. Equus possesses many powerful essences. Equus Brood poses potential threat to Swarm. Recommendation: integration into Sweetie’s Brood,” Abathur said.

“Not happening, Abathur. I am already my Brood’s Queen, Broodmother and Evolution Master. Besides, I have no intention of bringing the entire Swarm to Equus. Either Kerrigan or Zagara will need you more than I will after Amon is dealt with.”

With the last demonstration ended, Sweetie and Kerrigan return to the command chamber.

A transmission was received by the Dominion communicator that was still in the chamber. <”Kerrigan, Sweetie. Look at what you have wrought. Thousands dead, all for your revenge.”>

“Pretty sure nearly all of them were your troops that were forced to follow your orders. Of course, the killing can easily come to an end if you surrender your throne to Valerian and accept your punishment for your crimes against humanity, especially the innocent souls that you sentenced to death on Tarsonis in your megalomania,” Sweetie said.

<”It was the Zerg that took the lives of the people of Tarsonis. Humanity needed a leader and I was going to make damn sure that it was me. I’ll hand my throne to my son when he is convinced that my way is the only way to rule humanity. But enough prattling, I simply came to give you both your final farewells.”> The transmission ended.

Zagara was caught by surprise and relayed that the outlying broods were being eradicated by a device called a Psi Destroyer that was corrupting their hive mind and ripping Zerg apart from the inside.

Kerrigan had Zagara hold the front line while Stukov screened the flanks of any Dominion offensive. Dehaka was given a special task of taking out the power source of the Psi Destroyer.

Kerrigan sent a few Mutalisks to test the effectiveness of the Psi Destroyer and found that the field generated was quite effective.

Dehaka infiltrated the platform where the first of three power links were located. The Dominion and Arcturus were confused by the creature that was unaffected by the Psi Destroyer.

Dehaka went on a rampage and was able to manipulate its own essence to heal itself whenever it was taking damage from Dominion weapons. The Dominion were unable to bring down the Primal Zerg and lost the first power link to the Psi Destroyer.

As the field began to collapse, Dehaka broke into a ventilation shaft with a declaration that it will gather its pack.

Meanwhile, Kerrigan and Sweetie began constructing a hive cluster to deal with the Dominion on the platform. Sweetie spawned some Zerglings and Mutalisks that mutated into Blight Dragons before joining in the attack against the Dominion base southeast of the hive cluster. Kerrigan spawned a force of Zerglings, Hydralisks and Ultralisks and joined them in an attack on the Dominion base northeast of the hive cluster.

Sweetie built a hive cluster in the ruins of the base that her forces destroyed.

By the time both bases were wiped out, the Psi Destroyer was ready to reactivate. Kerrigan pulled her forces back to her hive cluster to avoid losing them to the field.

Arcturus taunted Kerrigan and Sweetie as Dehaka arrived at the platform for the next power link to be destroyed, along with a group of Primal Roaches.

While Sweetie and Kerrigan built up their forces, Dehaka made its move. It launched a tentacle at a nearby Siege Tank on a lower level and dragged it up to it. Dehaka and the Roaches tore the tank apart while the driver was disoriented.

Dehaka and the Roaches carefully took out the Dominion forces group by group, tank by tank. It took advantage of the elevations to prevent it from being seen by others on the lower level while dragging tanks to it and smashing them with its large arm.

Once the defenses were overcome, the power link was torn apart by claw and acidic saliva.

Dekaha and his pack escaped into the ventilation shaft once more.

Sweetie and Kerrigan went on the offensive once more. Sweetie decided to bring a number of Infestors and Swarm Queens to join the offensive. While Kerrigan took the left side of the next base, Sweetie took the right. The Infestors took control of a few Thors and Siege Tanks while stunning a few infantry in a fungal growth before exposing them to the Blight Dragons, infesting them.

When the Dominion tried launching Nukes on the Zerg, Sweetie quickly took out her rifle and redirected the missile targets to hit the Dominion base instead.

It was when they had just started moving into the base that was protecting the main hub of the Psi Destroyer that Kerrigan ordered everyone back to the hive clusters. Sweetie complied and everyone ran back as fast as they could, Sweetie dealing with any pursuers by impaling them on chitinous tentacles.

Dehaka returned just as the Psi Destroyer activated again. This time it started spawning miniature versions of itself to help deal with the Dominion. A pack of Primal Roaches and Hydralisks soon arrived to assist Dehaka.

With the number of Zerg assisting it, Dehaka pushed forward against the Dominion and using its spawn to add more firepower to their group. The fierce firepower of the Dominion was soon overpowered by the brutal savagery of the Primal Zerg. The elite Thor guarding the last power link was no match for Dehaka and his pack and the power link was demolished, bringing the Psi Destroyer offline permanently.

Sweetie unleashed the might of her Colossal Ultralisks against the remaining Dominion on the platform, fighting alongside Kerrigan’s group. As they fought the Dominion, Dehaka showed up to make sure the Dominion and the Psi Destroyer could not threaten the Swarm again.

With the Psi Destroyer totaled, Zagara and Stukov began pushing the Dominion forces into the Imperial Sector where Arcturus’ palace is located.

While Kerrigan knew that Arcturus still had the Xel’naga artifact near him as a last line of defense, she was confident that Sweetie had a plan to make that a non-issue.

Author's Note

Lastly, introducing the Colossolisk. It's size is about Tirek's when he's at full power. So pretty much a colossal Ultralisk with a Centaur's body with a long reach where it can attack air units. Drawback is that only a few can be deployed on the map at any one time.

Swarm: Vengeance Part 3

The destruction of the Psi Destroyer allowed the Swarm to secure the majority of Augustgrad. In accordance to Valerian’s request, the Swarm deliberately avoided any civilian centers where those who failed to evacuate the city in time were hiding. Zagara’s Brood, Stukov and DuGalle’s Army and Dehaka’s Pack were securing each of the sectors surrounding the Imperial Sector where the palace was located.

The leaders gathered for one last meeting before the final blow was dealt to Arcturus. The plan was for Kerrigan to spearhead the attack from within the Imperial Sector while securing entry for Dehaka, Stukov, DuGalle, and Zagara from the entrances into the sector. Once all groups entered the sector, everyone would push against the palace.

DuGalle had something to say, “Four years ago, myself and Alexei led a siege against this very city. To think that I would be doing the same thing four years later except this time, Mengsk will not escape.”

“I know what you mean, Gerard. Last time we were here, we crippled Mengsk’s core nuclear capabilities to make our attack easier,” Stukov said.

“That reminds me, why didn’t you take out his Physics Labs as well? Both resources were in the same general area so I can’t imagine you not having time to deal with both. It would have made your conquest of Augustgrad much easier.”

Stukov and DuGalle blinked. Stukov was the first to respond, “In hindsight, I’m not really sure. Perhaps our desire to stick to our strict agenda may have influenced our decision. Though we might have prevented a few unnecessary deaths if we were more flexible with the schedule.”

DuGalle spoke next, hoping to avoid discussing the awkward subject, “What’s done is done. We cannot dwell on lives that could have been spared. Let us focus on the here and now, Our plan has already been formulated and it’s the best we have.”

The time had come for the Swarm to make its move. Kerrigan contacted the Hyperion. “It is time,” she said.

<”Yes, I thank you and Sweetie for giving us enough time to evacuate everyone from the city. Those who would not were placed into underground shelters until the invasion ends,”> Valerian said.

“Alright, just stay out of my way.” Kerrigan returned her focus to getting her forces ready for the final battle against Arcturus.

Arcturus knew that Kerrigan was coming for him now. Because of this, he called upon every elite unit in his arsenal to protect his palace. While he did put up a brave front, he also noticed that his hands were shaking; whether from fear or anticipation, he didn’t care. He would do whatever it took to destroy the biggest threat to his life today. He would not accept defeat no matter what. He turned on the intercom that would broadcast his words in every direction of the palace. <”Kerrigan, Sweetie, the die is cast. This is the last day your Swarm darkens the sky of any planet. Korhal will endure, as will I,”> he said.

“Nice quote. I’ll engrave it on your tombstone,” Kerrigan responded. She turned her attention to her allies. “Sweetie, Izsha, Zagara, Stukov, DuGalle, Dehaka. All my Broodmothers, all my Queens, hear me. The time for planning and deliberation is past. Now we tear them down. Attack, and do not stop until they are all dead.”

Sweetie and Kerrigan each set up hive clusters in separate locations to collect their own resources.

Arcturus taunted Kerrigan by claiming that she was surrounded by the Dominion elite while she implied about his cowardice by rhetorically asking how many bodies he would hide behind.

Arcturus also had something to say to Sweetie, “Sweetie Drops, I always knew you were a wild card. What I don’t understand is why you would choose to become a monster alongside the Queen of Blades.”

“There are forces in this Universe that you would never understand, and you never will. You were always too blinded by your delusions of grandeur that you couldn’t see the end of the Universe even when it was staring at you right in your face. You couldn’t even see that you were being used by Narud to fund his project to end all of creation. Your paranoia has made you so easy to manipulate.

“Why did I become like this?” she added, pointing to herself. “Because I wanted the best chance I was going to get when the true threat came knocking. If eliminating you means improving my chances against the Hybrid armies, then so be it.”

While Sweetie was setting up to bring all of her strains to bear against the Dominion, Kerrigan struck first, tearing down a Dominion outpost next to her hive cluster.

While the outpost was being leveled, Kerrigan sensed someone familiar approaching her location. Izsha warned her of a Battlecruiser that was inbound on her location. Kerrigan recognized the Hyperion as it entered the city, bombarding a heavily defended Dominion outpost. “Jim?” Kerrigan asked.

“Let’s finish the job,” Raynor said.

“I didn’t think you would come back.”

“We’re both tied up in whatever happens here today. We do it together.”

“Jim, thank you.”

“Thank me later. It’s time you put your war-face on.”

Raynor landed the Hyperion while deploying some SCVs to set up his own base. It wouldn’t be long before Arcturus noticed Raynor and sent his forces after him.

Arcturus put a lot of pressure on the hive clusters and Raynor’s base. To aid in the defense, Sweetie sent a number of her Swarm Hosts to help defend Raynor while sending a number of her Scyllas to defend Kerrigan’s hive cluster, leaving a few to defend her own.

Sweetie spawned a number of Mutalisks and mutated half of them into Blight Dragons to provide adequate air defense once Arcturus began sending ships against them.

Shortly after Raynor sent his own group against the Dominion, Arcturus called on the services of a group of ships called the Sky Fury Squadron to attack the Hyperion. When they arrived at Raynor’s base, it was discovered that the squadron was composed of elite Vikings and Banshees. Sweetie’s Blight Dragons tore into the Banshees and Vikings that refused to land while the rest were left to a more gruesome fate when they came under attack from Locusts that shapeshifted into Zealots and Marauders.

Once the annoyance was dealt with, Sweetie continued building up her attack force by adding Zerglings and Roaches into it. Once fully nourished, the Zerglings multiplied into hundreds and pushed against the base north of Raynor’s base. Metal became stone and stone was clawed apart. Zerglings feasted on the biomass of Dominion infantry to fuel their division.

Once the entrenched position was cleared, Stukov and DuGalle began sending their infested infantry into the district.

Arcturus called on Alpha Squadron, a number of elite Battlecruisers to attack Raynor. The ships sunk quickly when met with the metal-rending claws of Sweetie’s Blight Dragons.

Since Arcturus was relying using his ships to defend him, Sweetie mutated half of her many Zerglings into Banelings. Within seconds, the skies around Sweetie were green with the glow of flying Banelings.

While Sweetie attacked the north, Kerrigan focused her attacks in the east. After spawning numerous Ultralisks and Hydralisks, with an air force of Brood Lords and Mutalisks to bring up the rear, Kerrigan pushed her forces into an entrenched position east of her hive cluster, allowing Zagara to take her Brood into the city upon the collapse of the entrenchment.

Arcturus spoke once again over the intercom, sounding desperate, “You thought you were so clever, Sweetie. You may have destroyed the Odin beyond salvage, but my Mjolnir Squadron more than makes up for it in terms of firepower.”

With a large number of elite Thor approaching, Sweetie quickly predicted their route and timed their arrival with the deployment of a number of Nuclear Missiles that landed in the targeted area. None of the Thors survived the Nuclear Storm. “You were saying?” Sweetie quipped.

Arcturus spoke in fury, “When I wipe your Swarm out, I will make sure that every trace of the Kel-Morian Combine is wiped from existence for creating that damnable device.”

Shortly after Sweetie single-handedly obliterated Mjolnir Squadron, Kerrigan destroyed the last entrenched position and allowed Dehaka’s pack into the district.

In preparation for attacking the palace gates, Sweetie spawned three of her colossal Ultralisks. She sent the Ultralisks at the palace base while timing the attack with a combined wave of Kerrigan’s Swarm, Zagara’s Brood, Dehaka’s Pack, Stukov and DuGalle’s Army and Raynor’s Raiders. The palace defenses stood no chance against those numbers, even as Arcturus deployed a number of drop pods in a last ditch effort to keep Kerrigan and Sweetie out of the palace.

Kerrigan ordered Zagara to take command of the Swarm while she and Sweetie entered the palace, Raynor wasn’t far behind.

Gunfire erupted from within the palace as Kerrigan and Sweetie ascended the towering structure, taking out every guard that tried to kill them. Sweetie impaled many guards with her devastating tentacles before teleporting beside a Viking and kicking it into a distant wall, taking out any guards in the craft’s path. Kerrigan used her psionic power and hurled more guards in every direction.

Arcturus watched the devastation occur and knew nothing was stopping the Zerg duo. He pulled out a small box and opened it, revealing a trigger and a cigar.

Kerrigan forced open the door to Arcturus’ room. Arcturus turned around with his cigar in his mouth and got out of his seat. He grinned, “Hello, Kerrigan. I’ve been waiting for you. I know your friend is right behind you. Bring her in, I insist.”

Sweetie accepted the invitation and entered the room with a shit-eating grin.

“I’m surprised you haven’t tried to escape,” Kerrigan said.

“Escape?” Arcturus chuckled. “My dear, you’ve got it all wrong.”

Arcturus lifted the cover on the trigger before part of the floor opened up and the Xel’naga artifact rose from the hole. Positioning his thumb over the button, he pressed it.

...Or he would if a flash of red light that briefly appeared before Arcturus’ eyes didn’t cut his hand off.

Once his nerves caught up to the situation he found himself in, an agonizing level of pain overtook Arcturus’ mind, he couldn’t suppress his screams of agony as he clutched the stub where his hand used to be.

Before Kerrigan could ask what happened, the shadows in the room shifted and revealed a familiar aquamarine unicorn standing to Arcturus’ right side.

Suppressing his pain as best as he could with his anger, he used his remaining hand to reach for the trigger.

...Which was prevented when a bullet pierced his right hand, adding to Arcturus’ unbearable agony. When he looked at the doorway, he saw a familiar black CMC suit with a skull painted on the visor.

In that moment, Arcturus could feel the weight of his sins beginning to crush his spirit before Kerrigan rushed Arcturus and pressed him against a wall while stabbing his shoulders with her wings. “You can never suffer enough for all the lives you’ve ruined, Arcturus,” she said.

“I made you into a monster, Kerrigan.”

“You made us all into monsters.”

Kerrigan placed a hand on Arcturus’ face and infused a large amount of psionic power directly into him before he began hyperventilating and felt his body being torn apart by Kerrigan’s power. The energy became too much for his body to bear and he exploded violently, taking the entire room with him.

Raynor, Sweetie and Lyra took shelter outside the room before the blast. Once the damage was done, the three of them approached Kerrigan.

Kerrigan thanked the three of them for all of the support they had given her before she levitated herself back to the Leviathan.

Before Sweetie could follow, Lyra ran up to her and gave her a strong hug with a passionate kiss to celebrate their brief reunion. Sweetie promised to visit her often while helping Kerrigan hunt down Amon.

Despite how happy she felt in that moment, Lyra had a strange feeling that matters around her would get a lot more interesting soon.

Author's Note

With the HotS arc at its end. The focus of the story will shift to Lyra until the epilogue missions. Have fun reading about the adventures of the Pony Templar.

Interlude: Whispers of Oblivion

Months had passed since the fall of the regime of Arcturus Mengsk. When his crimes were brought to the public, those who were uncertain about how to feel about the fall of the Emperor began celebrating the end of a tyranny that they had no idea they were under.

There would be a lot of expectations for the new Emperor, Valerian Mengsk. The reputation of Raynor’s Raiders, the part that was not portrayed in the media, put a positive spin on Valerian’s own reputation. A small percentage of the citizens suspected that Valerian struck a bargain with the Queen of Blades. It was soon revealed that Kerrigan had a personal vendetta against the former Emperor as a result of one of his many crimes against humanity.

The popular opinion eventually accepted was that Valerian struck a bargain with Kerrigan where she would help him stage a coup d’etat against his father in exchange for her being his judge, jury and executioner. The fact that Raynor’s Raiders took part in the coup made the explanation more acceptable. The minimal loss of civilian life made the transition between regimes smoother.

Raynor was made a General of the new Dominion and Matt Horner was given the title of Admiral. The positions were accepted if only to give credibility to the rumors.

Lyra remained outside the public eye. She wasn’t about to commit to any position in the Dominion since she had her own home where she would eventually return.

Before Bon Bon left in search of Amon, she showed her ability to manipulate essence to the Pony Templar by making a small alteration to Lyra’s essence to allow her to see what normally cannot be seen without assistance. Lyra thanked her marefriend for the gift as Bon Bon left in search of Amon.

A few months after the coup, a familiar Void Seeker entered Korhal’s atmosphere. Remaining as hidden as possible, the ship entered teleportation range of the Hyperion where Lyra was currently residing. When the ship locked on to Lyra’s position, one figure was teleported into the ship.

Lyra quickly sensed the presence of her old master, Zeratul, and happily greeted him.

“Sister Lyra, I need your assistance. You saw the prophecy that I gave to you and Raynor, yet the prophecy remains incomplete. There is a final fragment somewhere and I need your assistance in finding it.”

Since she had nothing better to do, Lyra decided to go with him while also leaving a note to let everyone know where she was and who she was traveling with.

During their travels, Zeratul told Lyra about what he learned so far, “As it was foretold. Amon, the Dark God, lives again. If any hope remains for our galaxy, it lies in the hands of the Xel’naga. Only one piece of the prophecy remains unfulfilled: that on the world where Amon was reborn, the last light will be revealed. There is one being who knew that location, a creature known as Samir Duran, or to the Terrans...as Narud.”

While Zeratul was flying his Void Seeker through an asteroid field, he continued, “In this system hides a long forgotten Moebius facility. We must hope his secrets still rest within its walls.”

Zeratul received a transmission from a Daelaam Praetor named Talis who was requesting aid. Someone or something was abducting Templar and she tracked them to a Terran facility that was currently under attack by Kerrigan’s Swarm.

When Zeratul was close, Talis informed him that she wished to free the Templar before the Swarm overran the place.

Kerrigan sensed Zeratul’s presence and contacted him, “Zeratul. I thought I sensed your presence...Let’s not mince words. Why are you here?”

Zeratul explained his mission of information finding and rescuing Templar while mentioning that he brought Lyra to assist him.

Kerrigan growled, “Fine, just don’t engage my forces and I won’t attack yours. The only reason I am even allowing you that is because you have Lyra with you. And I don’t need Sweetie’s Brood turning against me.”

Zeratul told Talis about the tenuous agreement he just made with Kerrigan. After, he and Lyra landed in Talis’ base.

Working quickly, Lyra and Zeratul finished setting up defenses and preparing a force of Zealots, Stalkers, Sentries, Immortals and a few Colossi to engage the Moebius facility.

The Moebius crew struck first with a pair of Vikings and a Wraith. When Lyra heard one of them, she noticed that his voice sounded creepy.

As Lyra and the Protoss progressed through the facility, she noticed that the Moebius Terrans were acting like fanatics to Amon. She suspected that the entire Moebius Corps may have been fanatical followers of Amon the whole time, that or Amon corrupted their minds. Zeratul figured that the Hybrid must have corrupted them.

After clearing one Moebius holding, Lyra called in a Probe to set up a Pylon at her location. Once the Probe finished its task, the Gateways were able to directly send reinforcements to their location from within the energy field generated by the Pylon. Lyra called in a few High Templar, some who volunteered to become Archons. She also called in some Dark Templar to add their powerful warp blades to the fighting force.

After clearing more Moebius troops, the Protoss freed the first group of Templar. The captives claimed that Moebius experimented upon their flesh and most didn’t survive.

Moving further, the Protoss made a disturbing discovery: the Moebius Corps was experimenting with Pylons and learned how to warp in their own troops. After destroying the containment unit, the Pylon was reclaimed and used to warp in their own troops.

Cutting across the projected Swarm attack path, they encountered a moderately defended Moebius holdout. Noticing a Thor, Lyra took control of the pilot’s mind and used him to tear into his own base. It then blasted the nearby bridge control that allowed the Protoss to send more of their mechanical units to bolster their attack.

Moving onward, the Protoss encountered more Moebius defenses and a pair of Thors that Lyra brainwashed.

They discovered another captured Pylon that warped in more Moebius soldiers which was quickly liberated.

Sweetie convinced Kerrigan to not destroy the Moebius reactor until the Protoss finished their business but their Broods still decimated the Moebius Corps in their path. What surprised Praetor Talis was that Kerrigan’s Swarm actually cleared the rest of the way to the last Templar prison. “What am I looking at?” Talis asked Zeratul.

“My guess is that Sweetie Drops convinced Kerrigan to lend us her aid.”

“The way is clear. Free your brethren and leave. I have a facility to destroy.” Kerrigan said.

Lyra blasted the last prison open, revealing a captive High Templar and a pair of armorless Zealots. The Templar revealed that the Tal’darim were responsible for the abductions and taking them to Terran stations to be twisted into Hybrid.

“The Tal’darim? Those heretics have never ventured so close to our worlds,” Talis said.

“Actually, there was that one incident over five years ago when a cell was discovered on Aiur. I was there when it was discovered,” Lyra said.

The High Templar said that he was initially held in an unusual Xel’naga temple called Erras. That was all he knew.

Zeratul located a terminal nearby and looked through files that weren’t deleted yet and discovered that the temple was located on Atrias in the Sigma Quadrant and was where Amon was reborn.

Talis agreed to travel to Atrias to assist Zeratul and Lyra.

Lyra sensed Ma’lash inside the Xel’naga temple on Atrias. “Huh, I wonder if Ma’lash is still upset about me killing his favorite First Ascendant.”

Lyra, Zeratul and Talis overheard Ma’lash’s order, “Tal’darim, seal the temple! None enter until my work is done. Any who defies my order will answer to their Highlord with blood. Also, if there are any sightings of Lyra Heartstrings, I want her found and terminated with extreme prejudice.”

“I’ll take that as a maybe,” Lyra said.

While they wished that the Tal’darim was their only concern, there was also the fact that Atrias itself was dying. Their resources would be limited as a result due to a shortage of Vespene in the area.

With careful spending, Talis was able to put together a strong defense to repel Tal’darim attacks. With the area periodically erupting with Vespene, Lyra and Zeratul moved to each erupting geyser and used their psionic powers to gather Vespene and return it to their base.

With the resources, Talis was able to warp in a small fleet of Void Rays to begin pushing toward the temple.

Some rock formations were discovered that were being excavated by the Tal’darim. Out of curiosity, Lyra checked out the rocks and took out the Tal’darim around them. Once each area was secure, she blasted apart the rocks and uncovered a trio of natural Vespene vents. Zeratul used the Void Seeker to gather from the vents.

With a source of Vespene secured, Talis moved her fleet of Void Rays and Carriers against the Tal’darim guarding the temple. Once the garrison was demolished, the small fleet blew an opening into the temple door.

Lyra and Zeratul entered the temple with a few Stalkers while Talis stayed behind to defend against enemy reinforcements.

Talis reported that the Tal’darim had begun to retaliate with Hybrids among their ranks.

As this was happening, the bridge Lyra and Zeratul crossed deactivated, leaving them with one way to go, two if they preferred to teleport back.

A trio of Zealots foolishly charged the group and ended up dying to invisible blades.

A pair of Sentries set up force fields to block their way with a Warp Prism nearby to warp in reinforcements. The two Dark Templar teleported to the other side of the force fields. Lyra unleashed a powerful blast from her horn that shot down the Warp Prism while Zeratul tore the Sentries apart.

A pair of Photon Cannons awaited the group on the other side of a chasm. While Zeratul considered projecting a Void Armor on his allies, Lyra had another ability that she had secretly been practicing. Taking the idea from the Tal’darim Blood Hunters, she figured out how to disable enemy defenses by placing them in Void Stasis.

Once the group teleported across, Lyra placed the Photon Cannons in Void Stasis, leaving the power sources helpless to assault from Stalkers.

Teleporting across another chasm, they encountered a Tal’darim Vanguard. Using his Shadow Strike ability, Zeratul eliminated the construct in one hit. Lyra hit a nearby Warp Prism with a Psionic Blast to prevent more reinforcements from warping in.

The path split in two directions. The left path held a large Particle Cannon that was shooting at Talis’ forces. The cannon was guarded by two Photon Cannons and two Stalkers. Lyra placed both cannons in Void Stasis while Zeratul and the Stalkers took out the Tal’darim Stalkers before dealing with the Photon Cannons and tearing down the Particle Cannon. Their efforts were rewarded with a trio of Stalkers from Talis.

A Hybrid and a pair of Photon Cannons were the next obstacle and were wiped out by the previous strategy.

Their next obstacle involved sneaking around a small group of Void Rays that were guarding a few Observers. Carefully the group teleported across a chasm to deal with another Immortal and a Warp Prism.

After dealing with a group of Stalkers and an Observer, the group’s attention turned to another Particle Cannon guarded by a pair of Photon Cannons and a pair of Scouts. Lyra placed the Cannons in Stasis while Zeratul destroyed the Pylon with his Shadow Strike. The Stalkers shot down the Scouts and everyone finished all three of the Cannons, rewarding them with a pair of Stalkers and a pair of High Templar.

Their path led them to an observation platform where they saw Ma’lash near an altar communing with Amon.

Amon commanded Ma’lash to ready his people for war. Talis suggested destroying the altar that Ma’lash was using to communicate with Amon to delay the inevitable assault and warn Tassadar and Artanis.

A door opened behind the group and a small group of Tal’darim led by a pair of Ascendants exited from it, intent on finding Zeratul and Lyra. Zeratul deployed his Void Armor and the group rushed the Tal’darim ahead of them as well as the next group that contained a few Stalkers, an Observer and a Wrathwalker. Zeratul used his Void Armor ability while everyone picked off the enemies.

After fighting through more groups with Ascendants, the group comes across the last Particle Cannon guarded by a Hybrid, two Stalkers, two Scouts and a Photon Cannon. The Nerazim rushed the Hybrid and Stalkers with Void Armor deployed. Lyra placed the Cannon in Stasis and everyone teleported to the other side of the chasm where the Particle Cannon was. The Scouts and Photon Cannon were dispatched and the Particle Cannon fell after, receiving Stalkers and High Templar as a reward.

After another group of enemies, the altar was in sight. When Ma’lash saw the group he began using the nearby Warp Prisms to warp in more reinforcements.

“You are finally cornered, Lyra! Tal’darim, the true god demands their death. Do not fail him,” Ma’lash said.

Lyra was briefly confused by what he said about her being cornered. When she looked back she saw no one and her new detection ability she got from Bon Bon wasn’t going off either. With a shrug, Lyra joined the fray as they dealt with a few waves of Tal’darim and Hybrid, including a Hybrid Reaver.

Ma’lash disappeared during the conflict, leaving the altar wide open to attack.

Once destroyed, a mysterious presence emerged from the void energies seeping from the device. The voice was one that gave Lyra the feeling that she could trust it. “Zeratul, Lyra, the Keystone shall usher you unto hope.”

Zeratul contacted Talis and told her that he found the salvation he was looking for.

Suddenly, powerful waves of void energies assaulted the majority of their forces. “Your salvation shall come by my hand alone. Let your suffering come to its end,” Amon said. The void energies began assaulting the temple structure, attempting to collapse the whole complex.

As they began to escape, the void energies conjured simulacrums of Protoss units, Lyra quickly dispatched the Void Shadows. Talis infiltrated the temple and ordered everyone to rally to her.

The group teleported over a newly formed break in the structure. It was a reckless run for the exit for everyone as they fought to get past Hybrid, Tal’darim and Void Shadows.

Only Zeratul and Lyra ever made it back to Talis, who decided to cover their escape at the cost of her life.

Zeratul called his Void Seeker to him and warped himself and Lyra aboard. The two managed to escape.just before the temple collapsed.

With the knowledge they gained, Zeratul and Lyra head for Daelaam space to warn the other Protoss that the End War had begun.

Legacy: Retaking Aiur

The Void Seeker ferried Lyra and Zeratul across the stars in their long journey to find the Daelaam. The journey to Shakuras took over a month so the two had to stop somewhere to find enough food and water for Lyra on the journey since the Void Seeker was not equipped with stasis chambers.

Little of importance was said between the two since Zeratul had to focus on maneuvering his ship around celestial bodies and avoid detection from the Tal’darim that were hunting them.

Once they arrived on Shakuras, Zeratul and Lyra were brought before Vorazun for questioning. “It is time you explained yourselves. Zeratul, you have been away from the Daelaam for six years, occasionally receiving assistance from expeditionary forces. What have you been up to?” She then looked at Lyra. “I have received reports that your friend, Sweetie Drops, has allied herself with the Queen of Blades. Can you explain her actions?”

Zeratul answered for both of them, “The answers to your questions are one in the same. We have been preparing for the coming war against Amon, the Fallen Xel’naga. He lives and shall bring his war upon us very soon. Sweetie sought power from the Zerg because she has known of his coming since the fall of the Overmind. I’m afraid that our time to prepare has run out. The war for the survival of our Universe is at hand.”

Vorazun thought for a moment. “If what you say is true, our Hierarch, Tassadar, needs to be warned. Praetor Artanis and Praetor Fenix have convinced him to stage an invasion to reclaim Aiur from the feral Zerg. I will inform the rest of our people to prepare for whatever Amon has planned. Be swift, if Amon attacks while the invasion is in progress, we would face certain disaster.

Lyra and Zeratul left the presence of Vorazun and returned to the Void Seeker in hopes of catching up with the Khalai in time.

The sight of Aiur from space was as beautiful as it always had been. The jungle planet that the Protoss had called home for millennia displayed its lush, green color for all to see. If one looked hard enough from orbit, one could see the dark colors of infestation that slowly spread throughout the planet.

Holding orbit over the Protoss homeworld was a glorious armada of gold and blue-colored ships. Standing on numerous platforms hovering over the planet was a vast army of Protoss ready to begin their invasion of Aiur by their Hierarch’s command.

Standing among the army of brave Zealots, stood three great heroes that led their armies during the Great War and the Brood War.

Praetor Fenix stood as vigilant as ever from his Dragoon, eager for the action to begin. He knew that what was about to begin would be one of the greatest undertakings that he had ever had the honor of taking part.

Standing next to Fenix was Praetor Artanis, who had been chosen by Tassadar to be his right hand and the one who would personally lead the Golden Armada to victory.

Standing behind the two leaders stood Tassadar, who was given the position of Hierarch of the Daelaam because he was the most trusted between the Khalai and the Nerazim tribes. His ability to wield the powers of the Khala in tandem with the power of the void wielded by the Nerazim represented the union between the two tribes.

Once the invasion was ready to begin, Tassadar began addressing the troops. “Templar, at long last, we stand at the threshold of destiny. For today we will restore the glory of our legacy. Today we will retake what we have lost, and reclaim our homeworld!”

The armies shouted, “For Aiur!”

“And may the Khala’s light guide us,” Artanis muttered.

Selendis approached the trio, informing them that the invasion fleet was ready to begin under Tassadar’s command.

Zeratul and Lyra appeared before the four in a cloud of shadowy smoke. “You must halt this invasion at once!” Zeratul said.

Everyone was surprised to see the two of them show up after the years that they had been away. “What do you want, Zeratul,” Artanis asked.

“The End War has come. Amon, the Dark One, has returned. This invasion is a distraction from the true battle ahead. Amon’s fury will engulf the entire galaxy.”

“It’s true! We even saw his allies, the Tal’darim, the Hybrid and even a Terran organization that calls itself the Moebius Corps are ready to begin their war on everything in the galaxy. Chances are, any Zerg that is not under Kerrigan’s control is now under Amon’s control by this point,” Lyra added.

“Tassadar, I have found a way to stand against the coming darkness. You must believe me,” Zeratul continued.

Tassadar closed his eyes and shook his head sadly. “We have been through much together, Zeratul, but far too many have sacrificed in the hopes that this moment would come to pass. I understand that our war with the Dark One is upon us. But if we do not go through with this invasion, it would damage the morale of our proud people. We shall aid you in the coming conflict once Aiur is ours once again.”

Tassadar ordered Selendis to begin the invasion. Countless Protoss began warping to the planet’s surface.

Since she wasn’t going to convince the Hierarch otherwise, Lyra decided to assist in the invasion.

A Purifier beam eradicated a small feral hive cluster before a series of Warp Prisms moved in and created a power field to allow a series of Photon Cannons to be warped in. An army of Zealots, Stalkers and Immortals instantly warped in as well. Lyra warped in on their position.

Their first objective was to free the warp conduits from infestation.

The army pushed against a small holding of Zerg with an Ultralisk among them. Lyra personally tore the large beast apart piece by piece.

Four Colossi joined the invasion group and pushed against more feral Zerg.

The overwhelming show of force tore into many groups of Zerg. Lyra’s Storm Charge was especially effective at reducing their numbers.

Selendis discovered a hive cluster near their position that she wished destroyed. Since there were no detector Zerg in the area, Lyra personally handled the matter while convincing the force to move ahead. After slashing apart the undefended hive cluster, Lyra saw a Brood Lord being chased by a few Phoenixes and crashing into a nearby Protoss structure. A few Zealots warped in to aid in the invasion.

By the time Lyra caught up with the invaders, they had already made their way to one of the warp conduits and were burning away the infestation. Once the conduit was freed, Selendis warped in another army of Zealots and Stalkers.

Lyra saw a Mothership that appeared to be on a crash course for somewhere nearby. If they could, they would try to rescue them.

After crossing an energy bridge that was somehow still active, they encountered another bunch of Zerg with Banelings among them. Lyra teleported between the two groups and unleashed a Psionic Shockwave that knocked back the unstable critters, stunning them. The Stalkers and Colossi capitalized on the opportunity and quickly took out the Banelings.

Lyra personally handled destroying another hive cluster while the invaders continued toward another conduit. Once eliminated, more Zealots and Stalkers joined the fray. Another Brood Lord crashed into a nearby structure.

Lyra saw the crew of the crashed Mothership fighting off a few Zerglings before the invasion force caught up to them and provided assistance. Their numbers were counted among the growing army.

The next hive cluster was attacked by the entire force this time. Lyra saw a strain of Zerg that she had not seen in years: the flying Queens. The hive cluster was still no match against so many Protoss whose numbers were bolstered again.

The army reached the second of three warp conduits and easily shattered the defenses and burned the infestation, adding even more Protoss into the army.

The next part came as a surprise to everyone but Zeratul and Lyra. The feral Broods started acting coordinated. Lyra could only assume that Amon and his forces were beginning to assert control over the feral Zerg.

The army took the time to take out the last of the feral hive clusters and receive the last of the reinforcements they would get before freeing the last warp conduit.

The merciless attack by the Daelaam as they pushed their way to the last conduit was met with an unexpected surprise as a trio of Hybrid Reavers appeared and engaged the army. While their attack ended in utter failure, the message was clear that Amon’s Hybrid were controlling the feral Swarm.

Once the last conduit was secured, Tassadar, Artanis and Fenix agreed to have a discussion with Zeratul and Lyra about the recent turn of events.

Legacy: Corruption

After witnessing the Hybrid for themselves, Tassadar, Fenix and Artanis were convinced that the End War had begun. Since they had no reason to doubt Lyra’s claims about who Amon had as allies, they knew that they had their work cut out for them if they wished to survive.

Tassadar, Fenix, Artanis, Lyra and Zeratul met at a secure part of the battlefield at sunset to discuss what transpired.

The five of them witnessed a Carrier falling through the atmosphere.

“It seems the End War you warned of has begun,” Artanis said. “Tell me, old friend, what is it you have learned?”

“I have witnessed the end of all things…” Zeratul responded. “Horrific legions of Hybrid razing world upon world. In the darkness, lording over them, a shadowy form...Amon.”

Fenix spoke next, “You mentioned a way to stand against him. What is it?”

“I witnessed a vision from a benevolent source, as if an ancient voice called out from beyond. ‘The Keystone shall usher you unto hope…’”

“What is the Keystone? What’s it look like?” Lyra asked.

“It is the Xel’naga artifact that you and Sweetie Drops assembled during your adventures with Raynor.”

Lyra tilted her head. “I thought all it did was take in a bunch of stuff related to Protoss and Zerg.”

“Never underestimate the complexity of Xel’naga technology, Lyra.” Zeratul steered the conversation back to the topic he wanted discussed. “The prophecies speak of Xel’naga standing against Amon in the end times. I believe this Keystone will guide us to them.”

“Go to James Raynor on Korhal in my stead and receive this Keystone. I will marshal our forces for the war ahead,” Tassadar said. “When you return, the Templar will be ready. En taro Lyra, old friend.”

“En taro Lyra, brother.”

Lyra looked at them with a confused expression. “Since when was I part of a Protoss salutation?”

The other four looked at Lyra and chuckled. Fenix was the one to clarify, “You are a hero among our people for your actions in service to Aiur and Shakuras. Those who earn that title are remembered among our people.”

Lyra hummed.

Lyra and Zeratul return to the Void Seeker to find its smoldering remains.

Before they could figure out what happened, a few of Amon’s Zerglings surfaced and surrounded them. Lyra and Zeratul quickly dispatched the creatures.

Zeratul hummed. “The Zerg in this area should have been eradicated...”

Zeratul had Lyra and his Stalker escort flee to the nearest Nexus Point to warn Tassadar of what happened.

As they progressed, more Zerglings surfaced to attack them. They were no match for Lyra’s blades.

The group teleported over a small chasm that was formed from the destruction of the walkway they were on. More Zerglings and a pair of Mutalisks were all that stood between them and the Nexus Point. Lyra turned one of the Mutalisks against the other with her Mind Control ability while the Stalkers took advantage of the chaos between them and shot both out of the sky.

Once they reached the Nexus Point, Lyra received a transmission from Selendis, <“Zeratul, Lyra, the templar stationed here...I can no longer sense them within the Khala.”>

<”Is that not impossible?”> Zeratul responded.

<”Then the impossible has happened. I can no longer sense Artanis or Fenix. There is only a void in the Khala where he should be.”>

“A ‘void’? You don’t think…” Lyra mused.

<”Yes, the shadow moves against us, Executor. Artanis and Fenix are in grave peril as could Tassadar.”>

Selendis sent Phasesmith Karax to help reactivate the Nexus Point so Lyra could raise an army to find and save the leaders.

When he arrived, he deployed a few Probes to bring the Nexus Point back online and deploy Pylons to reactivate the other structures.

Once operations were underway, Lyra had several Gateways warped in so they could efficiently warp in Zealots and Stalkers. Zerglings began attacking the Nexus Point and were swiftly killed before they could get close to any structure.

When Lyra and her army were ready to move out, she left a few Zealots and Stalkers behind to protect the base should any Zerg sneak past her.

A nearby Nerazim Void Pylon activated and warped in more Stalkers for Lyra’s army.

After they tore through a group of Zerglings and Mutalisks, most of which were fried by Lyra’s Storm Charge, The army engaged a hive cluster that offered little resistance. Lyra drained some life force from some of the living structures and other enemies around before unleashing the energy created to rip apart the Hatchery while the others focused their blades and disruptors on the other targets.

In a small alcove north of the hive cluster lied another Void Pylon that warped in more Stalkers for Lyra to work with.

As they exited the area of the fallen hive cluster, the army came across a group of four Zealots that were acting strangely. While they appeared to be dressed in the armor of the Khalai Protoss, Their eyes and psi blades were the crimson colors of the void. “Could the Tal’darim be disguising themselves as Khalai?” Lyra thought. “No, even they wouldn’t act to deceive others normally...unless it was Alarak.” The aggressive Zealots mentioned that Zeratul was a denier of the Khala. Lyra knew that the Tal’darim did not believe in the Khala like the Khalai did.

Something very wrong was happening.

Zeratul, who had rejoined Lyra, said that the Zealots are corrupted and that the Hybrid were likely behind it.

The hive cluster ahead had a decent amount of defenders including Zerglings, Roaches, Mutalisks and an Ultralisk.

Lyra was actually glad that the evolution of these Zerg stagnated because she didn’t want to be dealing with the likes of Kerrigan’s Brood.

After clearing the hive cluster, Lyra saw another Void Pylon across a chasm and teleported across to be greeted by more Stalkers.

Lyra rejoined the army and they pressed onward.

While they were glad to find the missing Templar, something was wrong.

The defenders were glowing red and began attacking her forces. While her forces easily dealt with the defenders, the Zealots in her own army began changing from their azure glow to crimson. Her own Zealots began attacking her and the Stalkers.

Reacting quickly, Lyra and Zeratul slew the Zealots in rapid succession.

When Zeratul tried to inform Selendis about what he found, he discovered that he was unable to contact her.

Artanis and Fenix contacted Zeratul and mentioned that their minds were being consumed with rage that was coming directly from the Khala.

“Artanis, quick, sever your nerve cords before you’re fully consumed by Amon’s corruption,” Lyra shouted.

“Just do it before you end up with us fighting you.”

Deciding to trust that Lyra knew what she was saying, Artanis quickly grabbed his nerve cord and with all the force of will that he could muster in the face of the corruption creeping into his mind, activated his psi blade and cut off the fibrous strand in the back of his head.

Amon’s voice could be heard all around them, “Your lives are meaningless, purposeless. I grant you salvation!”

Zeratul looked at Lyra, “How did you know that Amon has wrested control of the Khala?”

“It’s the only explanation for all the rage and void energy. I may have never had a connection to the Khala, but for it to corrupt an entire tribe would take a massive amount of such power and Amon is the only one I know that could do something like that.”

Zeratul accepted Lyra’s explanation while the uncorrupted Protoss teleported past a destroyed bridge.

After fighting through groups of corrupted or in the process of being corrupted Protoss, Lyra and Zeratul saving as many as they could by slicing off nerve cords, the group made it to Artanis who was recovering from his wave of emotional trauma.

In that moment, Tassadar teleported to them. “What is going on? Our brethren have started attacking each other. And they are speaking strangely.”

Thankfully, Tassadar severed his nerve cords years ago as a show of commitment to the ways of the Nerazim.

Suddenly, they were greeted by a corrupted Dragoon. “You shall serve the master in death!” Fenix said.

Everyone dodged as Fenix fired his Photon Disruptor in Zeratul’s direction. Fenix used his machine’s large size as well as his weapon to combat the enemies of his master, using his legs to kick or impale while firing his cannon at anyone who tried to get near him.

Lyra teleported directly on top of Fenix and slashed his cannon off. The Dragoon bucked hard to try to throw Lyra off but she jumped up instead and sliced a leg off during her descent. Following up, Lyra sliced the other three legs of the Dragoon and rendered Fenix into a helpless shell containing his battered remains.

Lyra cut a hole into the shell that was wide enough for her to fit her arm. Feeling around in the fluid, Lyra found what she was looking for. Pulling out Fenix’s nerve cords, she deployed her bane blade and severed it from Fenix’s body.

Once everyone recovered, Lyra picked up Fenix’s shell with her telekinesis and the four of them sought a safe place from Amon’s corruption.

Legacy: Fleeing Aiur...Again

The trek through Aiur’s fields had been a harrowing experience for Lyra, Zeratul, Artanis and Tassadar. Between the feral Zerg that were being controlled by Amon’s Hybrid and the Khalai Protoss being controlled by Amon himself, the group was beset by enemies on all sides. Lyra was slightly handicapped at the moment because she had to carry Fenix’s broken Dragoon in her magic.

While Lyra could still handle a few Zerglings, she had to rely on her Protoss allies to keep her protected until they could find a standing encampment of Nerazim to find shelter from their enemies.

During the trek, the three Protoss helped all the Khalai that they could, capturing them and severing their nerve cords to free them from Amon’s control. Lyra assisted by binding any Zealots that attacked with a Maelstrom to give her friends an easy time freeing their comrades.

Every few hours the group had to rest while Lyra regained some of her stamina since she had been hauling Fenix around for that long.

Eventually, the group came across some of Amon’s Zerg attacking a pair of Nerazim and who appeared to be Karax. One was already too far gone to save while the other was tackled from the side by a Zergling and clawed to death. Karax was all alone then.

Acting quickly, Artanis and Zeratul charged in and started slicing apart Zerg after Zerg. The Zealots who followed the group assisted the two leaders and soon cleared the area of Amon’s Brood.

Artanis approached the Phasesmith and insisted that he sever his nerve cords. Karax turned around to reveal that the deed had already been done. He asked Artanis if there were others to which he responded that he was only able to save a few.

Since they were so few on a world that was teeming with enemies, They would have to escape before Amon found them.

Tassadar and Artanis knew of an ancient ship that was left beneath the ruins of Kor-shakal, the former seat of power of the Conclave. The ship was called the Spear of Adun. Tassadar and Artanis needed Karax’s assistance to activate the power cells to get the ship online.

Hoping the ship was still functional after millennia, the group, with Karax added, traveled to the former capital.

The Protoss set up a Nexus Point on an overlook near the Spear of Adun. Lyra was finally able to relax for a few moments so she put Fenix on the ground. Even if he wanted to protest the treatment, Fenix’s Dragoon shell was still barely functional where the life support systems were the only thing running. He couldn’t even speak from within the shell.

Lyra decided to ask Tassadar, “Do you think Fenix will be alright?”

Her first master looked at Lyra while soothing her worries, “Fear not, Lyra. As long as his life support systems are online, he will live. Once we escape Aiur, we might be able to use some of the facilities aboard the vessel to fabricate an Immortal shell that we can transfer his body to."

Lyra was relieved not just from Tassadar calming her, but also from knowing that her friend was going to make it.

As Karax was inspecting the state of the power cells needed to launch the Spear of Adun, the Protoss heard a deep, dark, creepy yet feminine voice, “Artanis...Tassadar...Why do you flee from your salvation?”

The voice came from Selendis, who was being used as a vessel by Amon to speak directly to the Protoss.

Since Amon found them, the Protoss had to hurry and activate the power cells before Amon’s forces overran their position. Karax managed to activate the first of the power cells but needed the remaining ones to be cleared of Zerg infestation before he could activate them.

While Karax could not activate the other power cells yet, the ship was still receiving enough power for him to activate the ship’s support systems to help them out. Of course, this was limited to warping in Pylons without the need of a Probe for the time being.

Karax gave control of the ship’s functions to Tassadar who warped in a Pylon next to some inactive Photon Cannons and a Shield Generator to provide some defense for one side of their Nexus Point.

While Tassadar and Artanis were preparing their Nexus Point’s defense and raising an army, Lyra took Zeratul and pushed into some Zerg infestation at the bottom of the stairs east of the overlook. Lyra quickly wiped out the minions in the area with a Storm Charge while Zeratul used his Shadow Strike to free the next power cell. Since the Zerg were not using Spore Crawlers or Overseers, the two were able to clear out the infestation around the next power cell without fear of retaliation.

With the second power cell active, the Spear of Adun’s sensor array was reactivated and was reacting to something.

Amon decided to take a moment to taunt the Protoss before sending a few corrupted Warp Prisms to send in more corrupted against the defenders. Lyra teleported atop the Warp Prisms and slashed them apart while Zeratul slashed off the nerve cords of some of the corrupted Zealots, freeing them.

Once Tassadar’s forces were ready to move out, the army pushed south through more corrupted Protoss and Zerg. The force of Stalkers and freed Zealots were able to free the third power cell.

In retaliation, Amon summoned a number of Nydus Worms to send continuous waves of Zerg against the Nexus Point. Using the power fields generated by the first two power cells, Artanis was able to warp in numerous Zealots and Stalkers to deal with the Nydus Worms.

Since Artanis was focused on one side of the area, Lyra and Zeratul quickly dealt with the infestation around the fourth power cell. Lyra drained a large amount of life force from nearby Zerg and unleashed it on the power cell to activate it.

Amon’s counterattack with a combination of Warp Prisms and Nydus Worms were countered the same way as before.

To bring an end to the Corrupted and Zerg incursions, Artanis gathered an army from the third power cell while Lyra and Zeratul fought their way through more Corrupted to reach the army. Once they arrived, the entire force moved against the nearby Corrupted base and overpowered the defenses. After, the army gathered near the fourth power cell and did the same to the hive cluster.

At this point, Amon began calling on his numerous Hybrid to prevent his enemies from activating the last power cell. Numerous Hybrid Destroyers and Hybrid Reavers gathered around the last power cell.

As Lyra and Zeratul as well as Artanis’ forces pushed against the Hybrid, the Protoss lost a lot of soldiers. Lyra completely drained the life from a Hybrid Reaver and unleashed it upon the last power cell. Once active, Artanis continuously warped in Zealots and Stalkers to fight the Hybrid until they were finally wiped out.

With all of the power cells activated, Karax was able to begin launch procedures for the Spear of Adun. The stone bridges shattered as the platform holding the massive ship in place was retracted. The ship was ready to go.

Karax warped every Protoss that was not under Amon’s control aboard the ship while Amon’s forces continued attacking the Nexus Point.

Despite the age of the ship, the Spear of Adun was still functional enough to be used as a means of escaping Aiur and Amon.

While everyone was examining the ancient technology that was surprisingly useful for a ship that was older than Celestia. Lyra, who was carrying Fenix in her magic, was led to the lower decks of the ship where a starforge was built in to construct weapons of war.

Karax input the command for the construction of an Immortal. Once the construction was completed, he was able to transfer Fenix’s remains into his new body.

While Fenix was spending time to get used to his new home for his body, he thanked Lyra for rescuing him from Amon’s control, though he was embarrassed for being helpless and had to be carried for miles.

Lyra and Karax returned to Artanis and Tassadar on the bridge to give them the good news. However, Fenix was unable to head to the bridge due to the size of his Immortal. Instead, Fenix decided to explore the parts of the ship that his large size would allow.

Lyra saw the Hierarch and Praetor examining a device that reminded her of the star map on the Hyperion.

“So, where are we headed now?” Lyra asked.

“An excellent question,” Tassadar responded. “Since Amon has begun his war, we need to be ready for anything he will throw at us. While we need to return to Shakuras and bring the Nerazim aboard the Spear of Adun, we also need to go to Korhal to retrieve the Keystone before Amon’s Hybrid get to it first. If they get away with the Keystone, our last hope will be lost.”

Artanis continued, “So our choices are to either bolster our forces with Nerazim support before they are invaded by Amon’s forces, or to retrieve the Keystone.”

Lyra hummed. “The Dominion are pretty strong on their own but so are the forces of Shakuras. But I think recruiting the Dark Templar should make things easier for us once we retrieve the Keystone. If Amon’s forces get it first, we can still ask Raynor and Kerrigan to help find it.”

Zeratul appeared before everyone from his usual black smoke. “I agree with Lyra’s assessment. Exterminating our people will be at the forefront of Amon’s priorities. My people must be warned.”

Tassadar had his mind made up and ordered the Arc Ship to set course for Shakuras.

Legacy: Fallen Home

By the time the Spear of Adun reached Shakuras, the crew realized that they were too late. Amon’s forces had already overtaken much of the Nerazim homeworld. Many of the cities on the planet had already been overrun.

Karax received a transmission from the surface. Vorazun appeared on the screen. <”Praise the gods! You have all made it alive.”>

“Matriarch Vorazun, what has happened here?” Tassadar asked.

<”Shakuras has fallen! The warp gate linking this world to Aiur has been reopened.”>

“But that’s impossible,” Lyra interjected. “I thought we destroyed the warp gate from Aiur’s side.”

“Amon must have had some warpsmiths rebuild the warp gate,” Tassadar guessed.

<”At any rate, countless Hybrid and Zerg pour from the other side! They’ve obliterated our cities. Decimated our Shadow Guard. We are trying to evacuate the remaining population, but I am uncertain whether we can hold long enough to get them safely away.”>

“We will give you the time you need, Matriarch. My Templar are inbound!”

While everyone was preparing for Shakuras’ defense, Tassadar explained to Vorazun that Amon had corrupted the Khala and enslaved those still connected to it.

Tassadar left Zeratul to explain the whole situation to his Matriarch before he left the bridge to explore more of the ship. Lyra and Karax followed.

Their exploration led them to a chamber with a lone Preserver gently floating toward them. Karax warned his friends that she was still connected to the Khala. Tassadar and Lyra deployed their blades in anticipation of a fight or to simply sever her nerve cords.

The Preserver introduced herself as Rohana who assured everyone that she was not corrupted.

“Not yet anyway, you know that you are trying to hold off the will of an ancient, godlike entity, right? It’s just a matter of time until you fall to his influence,” Lyra said.

“Preservers of my station have trained to control the Khala’s every ripple.”

“If Amon knows how to control Protoss through the Khala, he might have been the one to create it in the first place. If that’s the case, then even if you could control the Khala, Amon knows every secret about it. There’s a lot of risk in allowing you to stay connected, regardless of how useful you believe the connection to be.”

“What you speak is the truth: Amon did create the Khala. However, through it I have gained the memories and personalities of Protoss prior to my submission to stasis. In this chamber you will be able to make all military allocations.”

“Fine, but the moment you start to waver, I will cut your nerve cords myself,” Lyra warned. She and Tassadar retracted their blades. They took a look at the assembly panel that Rohana summoned before them.

Lyra and Tassadar discovered that they could choose the melee warriors and ranged warriors that they wanted to bring with them to their next battle.

Artanis soon entered the chamber and was briefed on what happened a minute ago. Since he was Tassadar’s military advisor, Artanis decided on what to send into battle. He anticipated fighting Zerg and Hybrid soon so he chose to deploy the Nerazim Centurion and the Khalai Dragoons for their next deployment.

With the decision reached, Lyra, Tassadar and Artanis returned to the bridge.

Once ready, the Daelaam deployed forces to Talematros, the capital city of the Nerazim.

Vorazun briefed Tassadar of their dire situation. Most of the city was overrun by the Zerg. The launch bays, that hold the Shuttles that the citizens were using, were sealed shut by infestation. The planetary warp conduit would allow the ships to safely escape the planet but Lyra figured that it was only a matter of time before Amon’s forces tried to take it out.

Lyra took the Dark Templar who were available and started cutting their way through some nearby Zerg infestation.

Vorazun claimed that there were some vaults nearby that contained the last of the city’s energy reserves.

As Lyra and the Dark Templar started opening the first vault, she felt a disturbance in the air. When she looked behind her she saw what appeared to be an opening into some unknown realm before a monstrous form emerged from the rift. The creature, known by Vorazun as a Void Thrasher, began assaulting the warp conduit.

While the Dark Templar were assaulting the main body of the monster, Lyra focused on draining its life force. The Void Thrasher saw Lyra as the bigger threat and tried to unleash deadly energies around her location. The creature had no way to counter her teleportation magic as she appeared in another location next to it and continued to drain it.

Once the Void Thrasher was slain, Lyra and the Dark Templar continued their trek to the launch bays.

The Dark Templar opened the first vault to reveal the energy source. It turned out to be a crystal that was strangely familiar to Lyra. She knew that she had seen the crystal before but she couldn’t recall where.

Since she wasn’t in a position to be thinking about that at the moment, Lyra continued toward the launch bays with the Dark Templar.

While Lyra assaulted the hive cluster ahead, Artanis set up a Pylon in the center of a four-way intersection in front of their Nexus Point. Once the necessary defenses were set up, he used that point to rally his forces by assembling a force of Centurions, Dragoons and Dark Templar.

Suddenly, a Void Thrasher emerged from a rift northeast of Artanis’ defensive emplacement. Using his Warp Gates, Artanis quickly amassed a decent army to deal with the Void Thrasher.

As his forces engaged the monster from the void, Karax mentioned getting more support systems online on the Spear of Adun. Karax was able to unleash a small bombardment against the Void Thrasher, greatly weakening it. The Protoss had a much easier time eliminating the creature.

With the area clear, the first launch bay was freed from infestation.

Meanwhile, Lyra unleashed the life force from the first Void Thrasher that she had been carrying around and decimated the hive cluster before her. She and the Dark Templar had little trouble dealing with the rest of the hive cluster.

A third Void Thrasher emerged near Lyra’s position. She and her group engaged the creature in the same way as the first one, saving its life force for later.

The second launch bay was freed soon after the Void Thrasher’s demise.

Lyra fought her way further, while opening another vault that contained the familiar energy crystals. and soon realized that she had gone in a circle and ended up back at the intersection where Artanis had his defensive setup.

Thankfully, Artanis waited for Lyra to return from her battles before engaging the Zerg southeast of the defensive position.

Lyra unleashed the destructive life force that she had been carrying around to devastate the Zerg near the third launch bay.

As if on cue, a fourth rift opened nearly on top of the Protoss. Lyra drained that creature as well while the other Protoss finished it off.

Since the remaining Zerg were in no position to challenge the Protoss, Lyra let the others clear the way while she opened the last vault of energy crystals.

Artanis’ forces managed to free the last of the launch bays just in time before one last Void Thrasher appeared.

Since she didn’t want the energy going to waste, Lyra unleashed the energy she recently drained and obliterated the Void Thrasher in a chaotic wave of stolen life energy.

Vorazun was grateful for the assistance of her fellow Protoss for helping her people escape from the doomed world. However, now that their people are safe, they had to be sure that Amon’s brood would not be able to establish themselves on the planet. Time was running out and options were few.

Lyra had a feeling that a drastic decision would be made soon.

Legacy: The Last Twilight

The evacuation of Shakuras was now fully underway since the warp conduit from the planet was as secure as could be given the circumstances. Tassadar, Artanis, Lyra, Vorazun and Fenix, who was transmitting from a Probe, observed the violet planet with sorrow. Since Amon’s forces occupy both Aiur and Shakuras, the Daelaam were now homeless.

Aldaris walked on to the bridge to deliver his complaints about the situation, “This is a nightmare! Not only did the invasion of Aiur fail, but now the Zerg have taken Shakuras as well. Worst of all is that we are now cut off from the Khala.” He briefly turned around to reveal his severed nerve cords. “What will we do now?”

Tassadar walked up to the former Judicator, “We still have hope, Aldaris. Once we are finished here, we will go to Korhal and retrieve the Keystone from the Terrans. It will lead us to the Xel’naga.”

“And how will this help us find a new home for our people?”

“First, we must eliminate the threat of Amon from our universe. Then we can work to reclaim our homeworld.”

Satisfied as the grumpy Judicator could be, Aldaris walked out of the bridge in a huff.

“Is there anything we can do to save Shakuras?” Lyra asked. “Maybe we could activate the temple’s energies with the crystals again.”

Vorazun sadly shook her head. “The crystals were destroyed the last time we used the temple. The infestation has grown too great in such a short period of time. With such an infestation...Shakuras must be destroyed.”

“Are you sure there isn’t another way?”

“Alas, there is not. It pains me greatly to see this world in such a way, but we as a people must endure no matter the cost. I do not make such a decision lightly, but we are faced with such a reality. Still, if we as a people are to truly unite and fulfill my mother’s wishes, we will unite and reclaim Aiur as one.”

Karax called Tassadar, Fenix, Artanis and Lyra to a special room that housed what the Protoss called the Solar Matrix Core. The Solar Matrix appeared to be a massive sphere sphere of metal at first glance, Karax told Lyra that the Solar Matrix was a synthetic star that powered the entire ship while also nourishing the Protoss.

While that didn’t solve Lyra’s food issues, Karax did know of some of the Khalai caste that grew gardens that were used to feed specimens that were subjected to extensive testing and could not be put into stasis. When one of the Khalai farmers offered Lyra their services, she was relieved that she wasn’t going to end up starving on the long journey to save the Protoss race.

Tassadar asked Karax how long it would take to bring the tactical systems back online to which he responded that since the star had been dormant for an eon, it would take time and a catalyst called Solarite to restore it to full capacity.

“Solarite? You mean those strange orange crystals that we extracted from the vaults in Telematros?” Lyra asked.

“Yes, we are already using what we gathered to increase the power of the Solar Matrix. It will be difficult to scour the galaxy for enough to fully charge the core.”

Suddenly, a rift opened above Lyra. The Protoss were taken by surprise and activated their blades for a potential incursion. What they least expected was the Solar Matrix Core opening up while countless shards of Solarite began pouring from the rift and flying into the core.

Karax’s, Artanis’ and Tassadar’s eyes were glowing brighter than ever, as if trying to make a wide-eyed expression. They watched as Solarite shard after Solarite shard flew into the synthetic star, greatly increasing its output.

By the time the bombardment of Solarite ceased, the star was brimming with energy. Karax was nervous that such an infusion might cause the star to go nova. Thankfully, the Solar Matrix Core eventually managed to stabilize while the star reached full power.

Karax quickly moved to examine the readouts and was amazed by what he saw, “Amazing, the Solar Matrix Core has more than enough Solarite to not only bring the rest of the Spear of Adun’s functions online, but allow the use of any of the available functions at any time while the auxiliary systems are at their full capacity. Where did all of that Solarite come from?”

“I think it was Discord that provided them,” Lyra said.

“Discord?” Tassadar asked.

“Bonnie told me he’s a Xel’naga that can manipulate the laws of space and time. I saw him stuffing Solarite into a pocket dimension that only I could access.”

“Would it be possible to gain his assistance in our battle against Amon?” Artanis asked.

“I don’t know. He really only does what he wants to do.”

“Whatever the case, we are truly grateful for the Solarite he provided,” Tassadar asked.

An hour later, Tassadar, Artanis and Vorazun had finished devising their strategy for destroying the planet. Vorazun mentioned overloading the phase prism in the Xel’naga temple to force a spike of energy into the planet’s core to blow up the planet.

Artanis wished to turn the total loss into a pyrrhic victory by holding off on the destruction until a massive number of Amon’s Zerg and Hybrid forces emerge from the warp gate before shattering the planet to deal a significant blow to Amon’s forces. There were already fifty million Zerg on Shakuras and the number continued to grow.

Vorazun mentioned three Zenith Stones that served to regulate the temple’s energies that needed to be destroyed in order to overload the temple. Lyra volunteered to destroy each stone.
She just needed enough Zerg life force to do so.

While Artanis began setting up defenses around the temple, Vorazun warned everyone that the Zerg were coming in from the southwest path of the temple. Lyra moved in front of the Photon Cannons and Khaydarin Monolith and prepared herself as Zerg began storming in.

A few Zerglings and Roaches were the first to arrive. Lyra drained them of their life but knew that she was still short for destroying a Zenith Stone in one blast.

The next few waves allowed Lyra to gather more energy that she needed to deal with the first Zenith Stone. When she drained an Ultralisk, Lyra moved against the Zenith stone to the southwest of the temple. Instead of moving into detection range of any Overseers that could spot her, Lyra simply unleashed a powerful blast from her horn, empowered by the life force stolen from Zerg. The blast caused psionic energy to leak from the stone and electrocute the Zerg around it before unleashing a violent explosion that destroyed the Zerg in the area.

Artanis began growing frustrated because he was expecting Amon to send his Hybrid deal with them. There were two-hundred and fifty million Zerg on Shakuras and no Hybrids yet.

Lyra continued absorbing more waves of Zerg, gaining even more energy as the waves began to intensify. Once she had enough, she repeated the destruction she caused to the first Zenith Stone to the stone northwest of the temple.

With the waves sending stronger strains, Lyra quickly gained the energy to destroy the third Zenith Stone southeast of the temple.

All that remained was to wait.

Artanis called upon Karax’s assistance from the ship to utilize the Spear of Adun against the Zerg. He called in a Pylon alongside some Centurions and Dragoons. Artanis called in some Dark Templar to support the reinforcements.

Some of the waves were quickly dispatched when the Spear of Adun tore through them with a Solar Lance or a Purifier Beam. Fenix was sometimes called upon to slay a few enemies.

The Zerg eventually attempted a tactic of transporting Zerg over a chasm to the northeast of the temple via Overlords. Lyra drained the life from the Overlords, leaving the Zerglings to fall to their deaths.

Lyra dealt with other waves the old fashioned way, using her Storm Charge or simply slicing them up in one sweep. She would sometimes control the mind of an Ultralisk and turn it against its kind. Other times she would dispatch a wave with a few Psionic Storms.

By the time the Zerg count on Shakuras reach around six-hundred and fifty million, the Hybrid started showing up.

The first Hybrid to appear was a new strain. This one was flying and had a number of large spikes and tentacles with long scythe-like arms. The Hybrid Nemesis was able to put some of the defenses into stasis while it continued to fight its way into the base before Lyra jumped on the Hybrid and started slicing pieces off the Hybrid until it succumbed to its injuries.

Hybrid began appearing in larger numbers, just as Artanis had hoped. Every known strain of Hybrid began assaulting the temple grounds in greater numbers alongside the Zerg.

Lyra was teleporting to each of the defensive locations to provide support while using each of the abilities available to her to slay Hybrid.

While Lyra was doing all she could to keep the Zerg and Hybrid at bay, the vast number of enemies attacking the temple was simply overwhelming. She resorted to draining as many Zerg and Hybrid around her as she could and unleashed overwhelming power at more incoming waves while doing her best to avoid friendly fire.

Artanis also held out longer than necessary to overload the temple because Karax discovered some Solarite within the depths of the temple. Lyra told Karax that they already had more than enough Solarite for every function for the Spear of Adun. When he realized that, he rescinded his request and simply allowed Artanis to finish overloading the temple.

Once the temple was ready, Artanis ordered everyone back to the Spear of Adun to pull away from the planet. Meanwhile, he turned a holographic dial and set the phase prism within the temple to overload. The prism shattered into fragments while a volatile ball of energy formed between the floating shards.

A Nydus Worm breached the temple walls and unleashed hundreds of Zerg from its gaping maw.

Artanis engaged the Zerg alone, fighting his hardest to prevent the Zerg from destroying the prism. He fought against the numberless and unleashed the full might of his psionic power to create a powerful explosion that knocked the Zerg back long enough that the Phase Prism reassembled with its cataclysmic charge and dropped into Shakuras’ core.

Artanis was warped out by the Spear of Adun in the nick of time as the cataclysm began.

The Daelaam forces were clear by the time Shakuras exploded into countless fragments of rock and dust.

Legacy: Atmospheric Reentry

Lyra listened in on a conversation between Artanis and Vorazun. She overheard that the Praetor had unknowingly undergone a sacred rite of passage for Dark Templar and she declared him as one. Lyra was proud of Artanis for receiving such an honor. Tassadar and Zeratul were also there to congratulate him. Fenix, who spoke through a Probe’s projection, congratulated him as well.

Though she was saddened by the loss of Shakuras, Vorazun believed that the Nerazim traditions were more important.

Tassadar turned his attention to Zeratul, his expression serious. “Old friend, from what I have learned of what happened here today, faith alone in the salvation the Keystone would bring will not defeat Amon. We will need more allies if we wish to stand a chance at defeating him. I have decided that once we retrieve the Keystone, we will travel to the Glacius facility and recover the Purifier program.”

Zeratul hummed. “I have learned of the powerful weapons that even the Khalai deemed forbidden and sealed them away. Are you certain they will side with us?”

“Alas, I am not. The Purifiers were taken offline when they rebelled against us. We need to prove to them that we are not the same as those who tried to control them.”

With the Nerazim evacuees following or aboard the Spear of Adun, the Daelaam set course for Korhal.

What they saw when they arrived as not entirely unexpected. Terran Battlecruisers were fighting one another. One Battlecruiser fired a volley of missiles at the Spear of Adun but the ship managed to evade by warping to a different location. Most of the Protoss were confused by what was happening but Lyra and Zeratul suspected that the Dominion were fighting the Moebius Corps.

“Moebius Corps?” Artanis asked.

“They are a cult that was created by Amon’s servant, Narud, for the sole purpose of breeding Amon’s Hybrid armies while hiding in plain sight under the guise of a legitimate research organization called the Moebius Foundation,” Lyra said. “Now that the End War has begun, Moebius has lifted the veil and revealed their true colors.”

“So this ‘Moebius Corps’ are more of Amon’s thralls?”

“Eeyup.”

A transmission was received from Raynor, <”Protoss vessel, this is Commander James Raynor of the--Lyra? Tassadar? Man, ain’t you guys a sight for sore eyes.”>

“Hi Jim, I see Moebius is giving you a hard time,” Lyra said.

Raynor chuckled, <“Just another day at the office. I take it you’ve had a run in with them while they’re hostile.”>

“Yeah, Me and Zeratul encountered them not long ago while they were kidnapping Templar and turning them into Hybrid.”

After some rumblings from Raynor’s end and a few commands to his subordinates, Raynor informed everyone that Sky Shield, Korhal’s orbital defense platform, was falling from orbit due to Moebius destroying its atmospheric stabilizers that it needed to avoid falling on the planet and causing untold catastrophic damage.

Tassadar offered to assist in whatever way they could. Raynor was grateful for the help.

Meanwhile, Raynor asked Zeratul about what brought them to Korhal to which they informed him that they came for the Keystone. Raynor was glad to be rid of the artifact since he lost a lot of good men to retrieve the pieces.

While they were talking, Lyra joined the attacking group on the falling platform.

Lyra and the Protoss arrived to find a band of Moebius Corp Terrans attacking a nearby device that she could only guess was an atmospheric stabilizer that Raynor was talking about.

Karax mentioned that the damage that Moebius had been causing was repairable but the combined power of all five stabilizers were needed to restore orbit to the platform.

While Artanis set up his Nexus Point, Lyra headed to the first stabilizer alone.

She noticed a Missile Turret near some Reapers and Spectres. After obliterating the turret with a blast from her horn, Lyra freely slaughtered the Moebius troops with her blades, allowing Raynor to send a repair crew to fix the first stabilizer.

Karax warned of a few EM fields that would drain shields and suggested taking them out. He also warped in a Pylon with reinforcements near Lyra’s location while a Probe set up adequate defenses around the stabilizer in case Moebius tried to retake the stabilizer.

Lyra moved northwest with her reinforcements and received supporting fire from the Spear of Adun that eliminated a Missile Turret and some Moebius troops. Without detection, the Moebius troops in the area were wiped out. Lyra and her group took out the nearby EM generator with ease.

Turning her attention southwest of the generator, Lyra moved against the Moebius defenses near the second stabilizer. A Raven and a Missile Turret were the main threats in the area. She grabbed the Raven in her magic and hurled it at the Turret, destroying both. After slicing her way through Moebius infantry, Raynor’s second repair crew arrived to fix the second stabilizer.

In response to the counterattack, Moebius began reinforcing their positions around the remaining stabilizers, bringing in more detectors to make Lyra’s battles more difficult.

Karax warped in another Pylon with reinforcements while Artanis warped in more Dark Templar to support Lyra’s assault.

Their attack path took them through a Moebius base that was lightly defended and ripe for destruction as Karax blasted any detection equipment with the ship’s weaponry. Lyra and her forces tore apart the base with minimal resistance. Since the base was cleared, Raynor moved some of his boys in where the Moebius base once was.

Some Bunkers, Missile Turrets and a Raven were the main defenders of the third stabilizer. Karax weakened the defenses with the Spear of Adun while Lyra destroyed the detectors with her magic. The rest of the defenses were made vulnerable to Dark Templar blades.

Raynor’s repair crew moved in to repair the third stabilizer.

Lyra’s group returned to the platform section where the first generator was and headed northeast past some heavy Moebius defenses, including a Battlecruiser. Seeing a Raven nearby, Lyra grabbed it in her magic and smashed it against the capital ship while the Dragoons finished it off.

The defenses around the EM generator ahead were nothing to worry about as Lyra, supported by Karax, annihilated the defenses before she and her forces destroyed the second generator, earning them more Solarite that they didn’t actually need.

The fourth stabilizer was nearby and guarded by another Battlecruiser along with a nearby Siege Tank as well as some infantry and detectors.

Lyra’s forces tore into the defenses to support her while she stayed out of the main fight to deal with more distant enemies like the Siege Tank. She teleported atop the tank and sliced off its turret before hurling it at the Battlecruiser’s engines with her magic. The capital ship soon crashed in a place where her forces would have been if they were stupid enough to stay there.

Raynor’s crew moved in to fix the fourth stabilizer and buy more time to fix the platform.

Moebius focused the last of its defenses to keep their enemies away from the last stabilizer.

Meanwhile, Lyra received more reinforcements from Karax and Artanis in the form of a combination of Centurions, Dragoons and Dark Templar.

Lyra’s group noticed another Moebius base for them to wipe out. Karax bombarded the base with a Solar Bombardement and a Solar Lance before Lyra’s forces moved in to take apart the base. Raynor moved his forces in to secure the area.

Lyra noticed some heavy defenses around the last stabilizer and part of her wished Bon Bon were here to nuke the defenses. Since the Spear of Adun’s primary weapon system was still charging, Lyra would have to do most of the dirty work.

She grabbed a Raven in her magic and crashed it against a Missile Turret while Karax used a Solar Lance to burn through the Bunkers. Fenix was deployed to tear into the ground forces while the Dragoons and Lyra focused their attacks on the Battlecruiser.

Once the last of Moebius Corps was cleared from the platform, Raynor moved in with his repair crew and fixed the last of the atmospheric stabilizers.

With its orbit stabilized again, Sky Shield was able to return to its original position. Lyra hoped that Raynor would deploy some heavier defenses if something like this happened again. Having a massive hunk of metal that was the size of an asteroid hanging over Augustgrad was both reassuring and terrifying at the same time.

For the fun of it, Lyra ran up to the nearby EM generator and tore it apart, earning her more Solarite that the Protoss didn’t need.

Legacy: Retrieving the Keystone

With the situation with Sky Shield under control, Lyra and the Protoss returned to the Spear of Adun to plan their next move.

Raynor thanked everyone for their assistance in saving the city from a catastrophe.

However, while Tassadar was eager to get the Keystone as soon as possible, a complication arose. There was suspicion that the incident with Sky Shield was only a distraction while Moebius agents snuck into the imperial palace and stole the Keystone.

The agents were tracked to a port preparing for extraction. The Protoss and Dominion would have to be quick to intercept the transport of the Keystone.

Despite the urgency, Lyra wasn’t going to foolishly rush in her preparations. She learned that much from Bon Bon. If they were to retrieve the Keystone, they needed to be ready to deal with Moebius Corps and their Hybrid masters.

In the war council room, Lyra decided on which troops would go with her to reclaim the Keystone. She decided to test out the effectiveness of the poleaxes that the Zealots were wielding. After seeing the Dragoons in combat, she realized that despite their increased durability and firepower, their overall size was also a hindrance for the melee warriors and Dark Templar. Despite that, she knew that they would need the firepower to deal with the armored Hybrids. Since Artanis decided earlier that he would bring robotic assault units against Moebius, he tasked her with deciding which faction’s technology would be more beneficial for the operation. After viewing clips about the Immortal’s defensive capabilities and the destructive potential of the Annihilators, Lyra decided that the extra firepower would be needed to deal with Hybrids.

Once finished, Lyra tried to leave the room but was stopped by Rohana. “I do not understand how one who is not a firstborn is able to wield our technology,” she said.

“I’m not sure either. Maybe it’s because my race has Purity of Form like yours.”

“I did not think it possible for two races to be chosen by the Xel’naga.”

Lyra looked at Rohana questioningly, “You didn’t know the Zerg were also uplifted by Amon who also uplifted your race?”

“Why would he choose to bless such loathsome creatures and then turn them against us?”

In the end, Lyra spent a few minutes telling the uninformed Preserver about what she knew about the workings of the Xel’naga and Amon’s purpose for the Zerg.

“I see...It would probably be in our best interest to use the Khala to look into Amon’s memories and discover what his plans are,” Rohana mused.

“Remember, if your resistance falters, I will personally sever your nerve cords,” Lyra warned.

“I do not forget so easily, creature.” Rohana said condescendingly.

Lyra turned to glare at the Preserver, recognizing the condescending tone. “You can cut the ‘superior species’ bit, Rohana. You have no idea how much times have changed since you’ve been in stasis. I suggest you stay silent, learn about the world around you and adapt to it. I know that’s a difficult concept for you Protoss, but the fact that you’re adapting now means that you might just survive this war.

“Also, there are people on my world that talk like those with horns like myself are better than the other types of ponies. And neither me nor Bonnie--I mean Sweetie Drops, like them at all. One among those condescending types is someone my marefriend wants to kill. My advice: Don’t use that condescending tone and we will get along.”

Rohana remained silent as Lyra left the war council room.

Once ready, Lyra warped to the surface of Korhal with a few of Artanis’ forces to set up a Nexus Point.

Looking around, Lyra noticed the area, Bennet Port, was a warzone. There were burning buildings and crashed ships everywhere and Moebius was running amok. Raynor and Valerian had set up separate bases to push against Moebius.

Once Lyra arrived, Raynor sent her a transmission, <”Welcome to Bennet Port. At least what’s left of it. Moebius Corps’ entrenched themselves here to keep us from the artifact. Valerian’s setting up his base now. Once he gets--”> Raynor shouted in pain over the comms as a powerful psionic wave overcame them. During this time, A Hybrid Destroyer attacked Raynor’s camp in the meantime. But Artanis managed to warp in a pair of Annihilators to blast the Hybrid while Raynor’s forces recovered.

Karax found the source of the Terrans’ woes: a trio of Hybrid Dominators, a green version of the Hybrid Destroyers, were channeling void energies into the Keystone. However, Moebius Corps was also affected, meaning that while after each burst from the Keystone, only Lyra, the Protoss and the Hybrid will be unaffected.

After the Terrans recovered, Raynor began sending troops to attack Moebius Corps. Artanis’ base was still being set up so they would not be able to offer assistance, yet.

Instead, Karax warped in a Pylon inside of Raynor’s base to warp in troops in case the Hybrid attack his base during the next disruption from the Keystone.

Valerian reported that his group suffered heavy casualties from the previous disruption and needed more time to get established. Karax warped in a Pylon into Valerian’s base to provide protection to the young Emperor who asked Artanis and Lyra to save the nearby labs that were under attack from Moebius Corps.

Shortly after, the Terrans were hit with another disruption and Hybrid Destroyers were attacking Raynor’s base. Lyra teleported to their target and started slicing up Hybrid. She was able to hold the line by herself before the Terrans recovered.

Lyra returned to the Nexus Point and began moving against Moebius with a force of Zealots, Dragoons, Dark Templar and Annihilators.

After clearing away from nearby Moebius troops who were randomly destroying city property, Lyra personally slew the troops attacking the nearby lab.

By the time the lab was saved, another disruption overtook the Terrans. This time Hybrid approached Valerian’s base with a number of Hybrid Reavers and Destroyers.

Lyra moved up the road from Valerian’s base and attacked the helpless Moebius forces and the Hybrid that approached. The bombardment from the Annihilators greatly weakened the Hybrid while Lyra and the Dark Templar dismembered the abominations.

Since Moebius would be stunned for a little longer, Lyra’s group made quick work of the Moebius camp.

When the disruption ended, the Protoss continued their assault on the second Moebius camp while supporting fire from the Spear of Adun made attacking Moebius Corps much easier.

The Hybrid approached Valerian’s base again during the next disruption and were quickly intercepted by Protoss blades and a barrage of Annihilator cannons.

Lyra took advantage of the disruption and effortlessly saved another lab.

Her forces briefly engaged part of the main Moebius base before Lyra realized that the disruption was about to end. While she was retreating, she grabbed a Hybrid in her magic and hurled it into a Factory.

Raynor sent a garrison to protect the lower road from Moebius while Lyra defended it from enemy incursions. Karax deployed a Pylon with reinforcements while Lyra’s army was bolstered by Dark Templar and Annihilators, courtesy of Artanis.

The Hybrid attacked the northern road during the next disruption. While the rest of the Protoss caught up, Lyra teleported to intercept the Hybrid attack. Since the attacking Hybrid were not detectors, she slashed them into pieces.

After stopping the Hybrid, Lyra and her forces moved to free the remaining lab in the area. As an act of repayment, the labs sent their Medics, Medivacs and Science Vessels to assist the Dominion and patch up any wounded or damaged Protoss.

The next disruption was when Lyra was unable to handle the Hybrid alone. The attacking Hybrid were accompanied by Hybrid Dominators who could sense Lyra’s presence. Although she and the Protoss had a more difficult time defending against the waves of Hybrid that were becoming more numerous with each wave, Lyra was still able to disable the Dominator’s psionic abilities with her Feedback ability. More Annihilators and Dark Templar were needed to deal with the Hybrid.

Once the disruption ended, Everyone pushed into the Moebius base in hopes of making it to the Keystone in time.

To make sure of this, Lyra stole the life force of Moebius minions and unleashed a devastating energy wave that destroyed many of the Moebius structures in one blast. Raynor and Valerian’s forces entered the Moebius base to assist in the devastation while Lyra and the Protoss pushed against the Dominators guarding the Keystone, weakening them with her Feedback ability before leaving their lives in the hands of some angry Terrans and Protoss.

Lyra snuck past the Dominators and began slashing, smashing, and blasting the device holding and manipulating the Keystone.

Once freed, the Spear of Adun warped the Keystone aboard the vessel.

After Moebius retreated, everyone looked around Augustgrad, surveying the devastation left in the wake of the Hybrid and the maddened cultists. Valerian, Horner and Raynor personally assisted and tallying the casualties while Lyra shed tears for those who fell in the battle. She also assisted in the damage assessment.

Artanis and Raynor spoke while Raynor buried the dead and marked their plots with their rifles and dog tags. Amon’s forces have brought death to many Dominion-held worlds up to this point.

While the Dominion will be focusing on recovery after the battle, Raynor made a pledge to help the Protoss in whatever way he could once the Dominion was ready to deal some payback.

Legacy: The Purifier Program

After warping back to the Spear of Adun, Tassadar and Lyra paid a visit to Rohana to check on her.

The moment they entered the war council chamber, they noticed that something was off about the Preserver. Lyra was noticing the signature crimson aura around Rohana that gave away their status as one of Amon’s corrupted.

When Lyra warned Tassadar of what she saw, the two cautiously approached the possessed Preserver.

Amon sensed their presence and turned around to face them. “Tassadar, why do you seek the path of suffering? Would it not be easier to embrace a life without fear, without pain. I could have given you salvation. And yet, you chose to let your people suffer to the bitter end,” he said. He then turned his eyes to Lyra, “What is one of Celestia’s children doing here?” Lyra gave him a confused look. “You didn’t think I knew about the fledgling Xel’naga that some of my misguided brethren created? I have known about them for a long time. If it were not for the fact that I did not have a body, I would have hunted them down and ended their suffering as well as the race they nurtured. Since you are here, I shall start with you and that upstart, Sweetie Drops…”

That was all he managed to say before Rohana finally fought off Amon’s control of her. “I have seen the truth. I have peered into his memories. The Golden Armada is constructing a host body for Amon on Aiur and it is almost complete.”

“As much as I wish we could go to Aiur and destroy this new host body, I doubt we have the firepower necessary for such an assault. All the more reason to go to the Glacius facility and retrieve the Purifier program,” Tassadar said.

While Tassadar exited the chamber to return to the bridge, Lyra gave a sad smile to Rohana. “Even though you gained some useful information from the Khala, you still wavered and allowed Amon to control you. I have to make good on what I said.”

Rohana interrupted, “No, I shall do this myself. I now understand that the Khala exists to enslave my people through lies and temptations of power through unity while bound to a malevolent will. It deeply saddens me to be severed from that which I dedicated my life, but I shall honor our agreement.” She deployed her own psi blade and reached for the back of her head before letting the searing energy blade cut through the strands of her nerve cords. Although extremely painful, she endured the pain and cut all the way through, severing her connection to the Khala.

While Lyra wanted to help her, Rohana asked that she be left alone for the time being. Honoring her request, Lyra left the chamber and returned to the bridge.

Lyra observed a conversation being held by Artanis and Swann. Artanis was thanking Swann for sending the research data they had on the Keystone and, in the end, gave the Praetor the nickname, ‘skippy.’

Artanis was confused about the name before Lyra explained Swann’s quirky nature of giving people he liked nicknames.

Zeratul, Vorazun, Tassadar, Artanis, Aldaris and Fenix’s Probe proxy gathered with Lyra around the celestial array to decide on their next destination. Most of the group agreed that they needed the Purifiers in their war against Amon. Aldaris was, of course, fully against reactivating the Purifiers.

Lyra countered that the Protoss needed to take a page from the Zerg and adapt to the changing times in order to survive. While some traditions were worth keeping, there were those that weren’t when they conflicted with their survival.

The Protoss agreed that they would need to adapt to survive. For Aldaris, the concept was harder to accept but assured everyone that he would take due time to ponder that.

The first thing noticed once the Spear of Adun reached Glacius was the Tal’darim fleet holding orbit. If the fleet had noticed them, they were not in the mood to talk.

Since she was sure that she would be fighting Tal’darim, Lyra went to the war council to figure which troops would work best against other Protoss. She decided on Centurions, Stalkers, Immortals, and Dark Templar. Artanis would be calling upon the support of the Sentries for the operation.

Rohana was surprised that the Tal’darim had revealed themselves after so long and wondered why they would suddenly show up.

“They’ve been seen since at least as long as I’ve been in the Koprulu sector which was about six years ago. Apparently they are worshippers of Amon,” Lyra responded.

“Why would any being willingly follow Amon?”

“Because they're convinced that Amon will make them into Xel’naga. Unfortunately, they are following a lie because Amon intends to wipe them out when he’s done with them. They have no idea they are being deceived.”

“In that case, I can only pity them. But tell me, how do you know this?”

“Because I spent three years among them and learned about the deception from someone among them who was not fooled. But me and the other guy have a plan to free the Tal’darim from the deception, I just need to know when he will make his move.”

Since time was short and the Tal’darim were preparing to attack the facility, Lyra and the Daelaam set up a Nexus Point in a spot that was not yet taken by the Tal’darim.

As they were setting up, a Tal’darim Mothership began firing a phase displacement beam against Glacius’ orbital defenses. Lyra noticed that the beam was slowly moving toward the facility where the program was being kept.

Seeing the death beam reminded her of one of Bon Bon’s stories where she was captured by a criminal mastermind who strapped her to a table and fired a deadly magical beam at her that slowly crept its way to her.

Banishing the memory with a shake of her head, Lyra returned to the task at hand.

A transmission was received from the Tal’darim mothership, <”I am First Ascendant Alarak, and I’ve been charged with destroying this facility.”>

“Alarak? Hey, long time no see,” Lyra said, earning the gaze of all of her Protoss friends.

<”I see that Ma’lash failed to get rid of you, First Ascendant Lyra Heartstrings.”> he said with an amused tone. <”Perhaps this mission will be entertaining after all. Let’s see who will reach the technology vault first.”>

Lyra knew that she was not going to convince Alarak to back down. Instead, she accepted his challenge and prepared her forces quickly.

Karax released some nearby sentries from stasis and calibrated them to be warped in from the Gateways.

Meanwhile, Alarak was nice enough to send some forces against them early. Lyra personally carved up the Zealots and Stalkers that tried to attack the Nexus Point.

<”I see that your skills have not rusted since last we met,”> Alarak commented.

Lyra gathered up a force of Centurions, Stalkers, Dark Templar and Immortals before moving forward and dealing with whatever Tal’darim were in the area. She dealt with a Warp Prism and Photon Cannon combo by teleporting on top of the Warp Prism and used it as a shield against the Photon Cannon which deactivated when the multipurpose ship was shot down.

The Zealots around the cannon were unable to detect Lyra and were slain with one strike.

Lyra moved ahead of the group to deal with more of the Tal’darim that were foolish enough to not have a detector nearby, eliminating a number of Zealots, Stalkers and Havocs along the way.

<”Hrrmph...Perhaps I’ve been making things too easy for you, Lyra Heartstrings.”>

Alarak began producing a number of Observers to patrol the areas still under his control. He also increased security by deploying more ground forces to defend the vault until the displacement beam arrived.

Lyra saw Alarak’s strategy but was prepared for such an eventuality. Thanks to the enhanced vision given to her by Bon Bon, Lyra was able to see the miniature detectors. When she sensed one, they were wrapped in her magic and smashed into whatever part of Alarak’s forces she decided.

Alarak began fielding Vanguards and Wrathwalkers, the equivalent to Immortals and Colossi.

Each time Lyra cleared the area of Observers, she sliced off the legs of the mechanical walkers to make them topple and explode. She dodged slow-moving barrages from the Vanguards before teleporting behind them and slashing off the cannons followed by a horizontal slash through the middle.

As Alarak’s attacks were growing in ferocity, Lyra smirked as she knew that her strategy was working.

While Alarak was focusing his forces on Lyra’s position, Artanis’ forces took advantage of Alarak’s tunnel vision and pushed past some unsuspecting Tal’darim and made it to the vault before the beam arrived.

The vault containing the Purifier Program was opened and the sphere within was warped aboard the Spear of Adun just as the displacement beam arrived.

When Alarak realized what had happened, he laughed at his own foolishness. <”Well played, Lyra Heartstrings. I should not have been so focused on one as strong as you. I won’t make that mistake twice. We shall meet again.”>

When Alarak finished saying his piece, Karax mentioned a prototype warrior that was warped aboard along with the Purifier technology.

Fenix chimed in,

“Does this mean that we just warped in a robot version of you?” Lyra asked.

<”Yes. I will inform this robotic soldier of the situation. Karax and I will decide whether he is safe to be around.”>

Lyra left the matter to them and returned to the Spear of Adun with her job done.

Legacy: Ulnar

Artanis, Aldaris, Tassadar and Lyra went to the solar core room to check out their newest acquisition: a Purifier machine with an imprint of Fenix’s memories.

Karax and Fenix were in the middle of reactivating the machine when they arrived.

When the machine started moving, he looked around and saw a number of familiar faces. “Artanis! It is good to see you, young Executor! And you, Tassadar, my old friend! It has been too long. I see you have brought your newest protege with you. We should spar sometime.” He looked at Aldaris, “If you are here then the Conclave must have another task for me. What is their bidding?”

Everyone could tell that there would be a lot of awkward explanations ahead for them. Especially since Fenix was in the room with them. They would need to be extremely careful in their explanations if they wanted to avoid the Purifier going berserk.

The matter of the explanations were left to Fenix, Aldaris and Tassadar.

Meanwhile, Artanis, Lyra and Karax discussed the phasesmith’s findings of the Keystone. They discovered that the artifact could lead them to a legendary Xel’naga temple called Ulnar. When Karax pressed a few buttons, the artifact opened itself to reveal a location that came as a surprise for the two Protoss. Lyra wasn’t knowledgeable enough to understand the meaning of their surprise. Artanis and Karax had to explain to Lyra the dangers of the Alterian Rift and how, logically, nothing could survive in such a place.

“And yet, it is the best place to conceal the Xel’naga,” said Zeratul as he walked into the chamber. “We must go to the Alterian Rift and find Ulnar.”

Everyone knew how dangerous the Alterian Rift was. Many have claimed that those who enter would be dissolved into their base elements. Tassadar was willing to take the leap of faith and order the Spear of Adun into the rift.

Inside, they quickly found what they were looking for: the Xel’naga temple that was said to hold the Xel’naga in stasis. The temple was about the size of a small planet and octahedral in shape.

After examining the structure, the Protoss found what appeared to be an access way into the temple.

Lyra saw another complication, however. Tal’darim ships alongside Terran Battlecruisers were detected. The only way for that setup to make sense would be if the Terran ships were Moebius Corps property.

Tassadar decided that now would be a good time to bring in their starfighters. Artanis decided on using the Phoenixes for their battles against the Tal’darim and Moebius.

After examining the structure and what knowledge Rohana had about Ulnar, Tassadar learned that they needed to activate a series of celestial locks that looked like floating stones over pools of energy.

Moebius and the Tal’darim were seen guarding the locks to make sure the Daelaam couldn’t get inside.

Since they needed to get around fast and they were dealing with Protoss and Terrans, Lyra opted for Energizers and Stalkers. Zealots would be best to handle Moebius Corps but went with Sentinels in case she wanted to be aggressive. Immortals and Dark Templar would round off the roster that Lyra wanted to assist in the mission.

Artanis quickly set up and prepared Gateways, Robotics Facilities and Stargates to warp in the necessary troops to assist in the task of taking the celestial locks.

To improve resource efficiency, Artanis set up another Nexus near the main Nexus point to speed up the time normally taken to prepare.

While Artanis was setting up, Karax reported a large Warp Prism was flying around the area and needed to be taken out in case it becomes a nuisance in the future.

Lyra moved ahead with a group of Dark Templar and began attacking groups of Moebius and Tal’darim. Her luck held out for the time being as neither had deemed necessary to deploy their Ravens or Observers so she and her hunting party were able to eliminate a number of enemies unmolested.

When Lyra and her group attempted to capture a lock however, they realized that the mechanism was not recognizing their presence. When Artanis sent a Probe to prepare a defense of the lock, the mechanism recognized the Probe and the first celestial lock unlocked.

Lyra pouted a little when she realized that she would have to reveal herself if she wanted the lock to see her. Of course, she also didn’t want to risk a Spectre being nearby to snipe her in the head if she tried to decloak.

Deciding to change her strategy, Lyra decided that the best way to prevent the Tal’darim and the Moebius Corps from taking back the locks would be to make them retreat.

Artanis warped in an Energizer for Lyra to use to warp in the troops she wanted. When the Energizer transformed to generate a power field, Artanis began warping a large number of every variety of troops that were available to the Daelaam forces at the time.

When ready, Lyra’s group moved against the Tal’darim base to the north of the lock that they had taken. Sentinels took to the front line and bravely sacrificed themselves while Immortals were right behind them. Stalkers teleported into the fray. The Energizers supported by boosting the speed of their allies. Many of the base defenders were pulled into the air by the Phoenixes and helplessly shot to death or destruction. The Wrathwalkers were unable to deal with the starfighters due to the lack of air weaponry.

Once the Photon Cannons were dealt with, Lyra and her Dark Templar moved in and assisted in the destruction of the Tal’darim base. The enemy offensive was effectively cut in half in a matter of minutes as many of the Tal’darim ships retreated. Those who were not at the base remained in the area to defend the locks.

Meanwhile, Artanis formed a second army to take the second celestial lock.

Lyra’s army returned to the main Nexus Point in triumph to regroup and prepare to assault the Moebius base.

While Lyra was waiting, Artanis’ group encountered the titanic Warp Prism and its escort. The Phoenixes were able to shoot down the Void Rays while the ground forces took out whatever the Warp Prism tried to warp in. While it was doing that, the Phoenixes focused their fire on the large Warp Prism and soon destroyed it, freeing its Solarite reactor and giving the Spear of Adun more Solarite that it didn’t need.

Moebius attempted to take back the celestial locks that were taken by the Daelaam but were too late as Lyra’s group was ready to assault their base. Her forces ignored the nearby lock, leaving it for Artanis to deal with.

Lyra took a Raven in her magic and smashed it against a Bunker to start the attack. Moebius had a lot more ships than the Tal’darim so the Phoenixes would be working extra hard to clear the skies of Wraiths, Banshees, Vikings and Battlecruisers. The Dark Templar went on a killing spree against the Marines, Marauders and Spectres.

One Raven spotted Lyra and fired a Seeker Missile at her. Lyra saw the incoming projectile and grabbed it in her magic and redirecting its course to a group of Marines. She then grabbed the Raven and smashed it into a nearby Missile Turret, destroying both.

Once the main defenses in the base were demolished, Lyra’s group had little trouble burning down the rest of the Moebius base and was soon obliterated within a few minutes.

Without support from the base, the Moebius Corps was forced to retreat while leaving any standing forces to fend for themselves.

There was little the remaining Tal’darim or Moebius forces could do to prevent Artanis from claiming the remaining three celestial locks.

Once all five locks were claimed, the five stones that represented the locks disappeared and the door into the temple opened.

Rohana sensed that Amon’s forces had retreated for the time being while she could only sense stillness within the temple.

Lyra could only hope that the Xel’naga were actually still inside and not all dead like Bon Bon feared.

Legacy: The Infinite Cycle

Lyra returned to the Spear of Adun to rest after her efforts to drive off the Moebius Corps and the Tal’darim. Artanis congratulated her on another job well done when she made his job of securing the celestial locks much easier.

After the operation was complete, Artanis left a garrison behind to protect the locks in case any of Amon’s forces came to interfere again.

Tassadar discussed the exploration of the temple with everyone and decided that he would explore alone. However, Lyra insisted on accompanying him and was not taking ‘no’ for an answer.

Unfortunately for the duo, the Spear of Adun would not be able to provide support inside the temple. Since Tassadar and Lyra would be heading inside alone, there was also no point in making any adjustments on the war council terminal.

Preliminary scans had picked up a number of unknown energy signatures which the Daelaam believed belonged to the various devices in the temple.

Other scans of the temple found that the temple stood as a border between universes but what Lyra sensed was a vast amount of void energies within. She suspected that the temple may be a gateway to the Void itself.

After making the necessary preparations for themselves and giving temporary command of the Spear of Adun to Vorazun, Lyra and Tassadar entered the accessway into the temple.

A single Leviathan carrying the two Queens of the Swarm approached the Alterian Rift.

A few days ago, Kerrigan received a mysterious message within a dream that told her that the Xel’naga lied within the temple of Ulnar in the Alterian Rift.

Since she had no other leads, Kerrigan took a chance with the vision and dared to enter the rift with the Leviathan.

After finding the temple and searching around, Kerrigan noticed the strange Protoss vessel but tried to avoid it to prevent any awkward encounters with the Daelaam.

Kerrigan and Sweetie discovered a separate accessway into the temple.

While Moebius and the Tal’darim were guarding the celestial locks for that section as well, Sweetie dealt with the Moebius Corps using her Blight Dragons by tearing down the ships and infesting the infantry. Kerrigan overwhelmed the Tal’darim using Ultralisks, Zerglings, Hydralisks and a large number of Mutalisks. The two Queens had an easy time routing Amon’s forces.

Once the locks were secure, Sweetie and Kerrigan entered the temple together.

A few days passed since Lyra and Tassadar entered the temple. They had no luck in their search so far as they explored the temple with Tassadar using a psi blade for illumination and Lyra using the light of her horn.

Tassadar saw a stone tablet that appeared to show an image of Zeratul and things he saw on Shakuras. He also saw what appeared to be a Xel’naga hovering over Kerrigan in the image.

Suddenly, part of the wall above the duo broke and a Hybrid fell through and landed before them. The Hybrid appeared motionless until it looked like it was getting up. What they really saw was Kerrigan getting the abomination off from on top of her.

“Hey Kerrigan,” Lyra greeted. “Is Bonnie with you?”

“All shall submit.” A second Hybrid said from above them before it ended up impaled in multiple places by chitinous tentacles. The Hybrid slumped through the hole before another figure flew down on leathery wings.

Lyra immediately recognized the figure and rushed forward to tackle and hug her. Sweetie never got tired of Lyra’s affectionate nature.

“What are you two doing here?” Lyra asked cheerfully.

“We’re looking for the Xel’naga. What about you?”

“Same thing as you. Let’s search the place together.”

Sweetie chuckled, “Sure, wiping out Hybrid will be much easier with the four of us.”

After the Ponies assured Tassadar that Kerrigan wasn’t going to stab any of them in the back, the group continued their exploration.

Kerrigan stated that the Hybrid had been impeding their progress for a while.

“The prophecies foretell of two ascended races working together to seek out the Halls of Revelation within the temple,” Tassadar said. “Only with both present will the shrines reveal the means to awaken the slumbering Xel’naga.”

“Guess we’ll find out if those prophecies were worth anything,” Kerrigan commented.

The group moved forward past a wall of devices that receded into the ground when the approached.

They noticed that the guardians of the temple were beginning to reveal themselves. Spotting a group of round constructs, Tassadar quickly dealt with them with a Lightning Dash.

The larger construct next to them activated upon their destruction. “Purity of Form. Purity of Essence. Prove your strength.” the Temple Sentinel said.

The Sentinel prepared to smash the ground around it so everyone cleared the area around the construct. When it smashed the ground, a number of smaller constructs were summoned and moved to attack. Sweetie impaled the smaller constructs while Kerrigan spawned Banelings to burn the Sentinel in acid while her Kinetic Blast heavily damaged the large construct. Lyra and Tassadar coordinated their movements and sliced the Sentinel to pieces.

Upon its destruction, a floating stone that had an orange glow appeared from the rubble. It placed itself on a pedestal that had the same glow as the stone. On the other end of what appeared to be a door was another pedestal that glowed blue while already having a stone placed on top of it.

The door began to open and Kerrigan commented, “So the constructs hold the keys. Good to know.”

Sweetie and Lyra examined the setup for a little longer before an old memory was triggered. Sweetie spoke first. “Hey, this setup. You don’t think…” Sweetie trailed off to see if Lyra picked up on her train of thought.

“Could it be?” Lyra asked hopefully.

“A Daring Do-type adventure!” both shouted simultaneously.

“This is definitely the kind of adventure that A.K. Yearling would write about,” Sweetie continued.

Tassadar and Kerrigan were very confused about the Ponies sudden change in behavior. However, both of them had a feeling that this was just something between them and let the matter drop before they risked saying something stupid.

Once the mares calmed down, the group proceeded past the door.

Just past it was a device that was emitting solar energy and Tassadar decided to collect it with a message speaking in their heads, “Our knowledge is your heritage.”

A trio of Hybrids met the group next. Tassadar and Kerrigan dealt with a Reaver while Sweetie broke the shield of a Destroyer with an EM Shot before impaling it in the head with a tentacle that extended from her finger. Lyra drained the life force of her Destroyer before unleashing it against the Reaver that Kerrigan and Tassadar were fighting.

Another Sentinel activated after the Hybrid were killed. The Ponies let Tassadar and Kerrigan handle the construct since they didn’t get much action against the Hybrid group.

The guardian’s death revealed a stone that glowed blue and floated over to the nearby blue pedestal.

The orange pedestal was still empty but Lyra saw the other statue they needed across a chasm. Instead of teleporting over to activate the dormant statue, Lyra fired a magical bolt at the statue which immediately reacted by floating over to them.

The Sentinel attempted to unleash a powerful beam of psionic energy at the group but other than that, the statue was as easy to deal with as the first two.

As expected, the destruction of the Sentinel revealed the missing stone that floated over to the remaining empty pedestal to unlock the door mechanism.

The first shrine that Tassadar wanted to find was on the other side of the door. When everyone approached it, the shrine began to activate.

The group was suddenly greeted by a group of Moebius Reapers and Tal’darim Zealots. Since everyone was on the same page that they were part of Amon’s forces, Sweetie, Lyra, Kerrigan and Tassadar showed no mercy to the intruders.

Sweetie hurled a Baneling Grenade into the middle of the Reaper group while Tassadar unleashed his Lightning Dash that quickly destroyed the Zealots’ shields before rapidly slashing them.

Reinforcements came in the form of Stalkers and Medivacs. Lyra didn’t care for who was aboard the transports so she grabbed one of the ships in her magic and smashed one into another, causing both to crash and burn in the chasm below. Kerrigan spawned a group of Banelings that made quick work of the Stalkers.

Hybrid soon came into the fight while the four were slaughtering their forces left and right. Lyra fully drained the life from a Hybrid Reaver and used the energy to destroy a nearby Destroyer. Sweetie sliced one in half when she willed one of her tentacles to flatten and form a sharp edge.

When Amon’s forces were driven off, the group received a vision from the shrine. It was learned that the Xel’naga were born from within the Void. Their purpose was to cultivate life and perpetuate the Infinite Cycle. They took on a physical form when a new universe was created and thrust back into the Void if destroyed. The assembly of the Keystone and the coming of two who bear one of the two Purities was all part of the Xel’nagas’ plan to continue the Infinite Cycle.

“Amon indwells my people...possessing them through the Khala, but he has no physical form...not yet. If he were separated from the Templar, he could be forced back into the Void!” Tassadar said.

When the group crossed the bridge that just formed, a powerful crimson beam pierced the ceiling of the temple and a number of Tal’darim Warp Prisms descended and started warping in a large number of Tal’darim warriors. Lyra dealt with the Warp Prisms while the others took advantage of their grouped up formation to devastate their numbers.

More Tal’darim were ahead fighting one of the Sentinels with a moderate number of smaller guardians assisting it. The group took advantage of the distraction and wiped out the Tal’darim before demolishing the Sentinel and its guardians.

An orange stone was released from the Sentinel and it floated to the pedestal to unlock the next door.

Moebius Corps ambushed the group in the next chamber with a number of Spectres and Reapers with a Thor as well but stood no chance against the four powerhouses.

The door to the next shrine had caved in so they would need to find another way to their destination. A group of Hybrid tried to entertain the group for a few seconds before they were dispatched.

After taking out another Moebius ambush, Tassadar found another solar-powered Xel’naga device. A voice spoke as he picked it up, “Our heritage is your future.”

A small number of Moebius heavy machinery attacked another Sentinel. Once the chamber was wiped out, an orange stone floated to its pedestal to open the way to the shrine.

As expected, a number of Warp Prisms, Medivacs and Hybrid ambushed the group to keep them from the shrine. Lyra began siphoning the life force of any of the nearby enemies and used the energies to take out the Hybrid while Sweetie created a pit of spikes underneath her enemies.

When the area was clear, the group got their next revelation. From Ulnar, the Xel’naga seeded the universe with life. They created the numberless races throughout the multiverse. They would always observe and identify the potential of the races they created without interfering with their development. The Infinite Cycle deemed that two races would emerge. One would be pure of essence, an indomitable spirit that is capable of great change. Another would be pure of form, a being of vast psionic potential that could house the essence of a Xel’naga.

Sweetie knew where Discord’s plan would ultimately lead her. She could only ask herself if she was truly worthy enough to become a part of something so great.

The introspection would have to wait as the path opened to the next section.

When they crossed the bridge, the group noticed something was wrong. Someone had already opened the next door. A number of Hybrid were sensed ahead attacking the last shrine. They needed to hurry.

With no time to rest, the group used every ability at their disposal to dispatch wave after wave of Hybrid, Tal’darim and Moebius Corps. They also had to dodge the displacement beams from Tal’darim Motherships.

Seeing a third Xel’naga device down a corridor, Lyra teleported to it and picked it up, hearing a voice in her head, “Our future is as one in the Void.”

Everyone quickly entered the chamber where the shrine was held and easily dispatched the Tal’darim and Moebius group before engaging the Hybrid, including one that looked like an enhanced version of the Hybrid Reaver except its claws were crimson. When the Hybrid Behemoth finally engaged the group, Lyra used her speed to slice off an arm before it had time to react. Sweetie gathered a lot of magic into her horn before firing it at the Behemoth and vaporizing it.

The third shrine was activated and everyone received the final vision. Within the Chamber of Ascension, the Xel’naga have slumbered for eons. The two destined races’ arrival was supposed to awaken the Xel’naga from their slumber. The elders among them would give their lives to bestow their essence to the chosen to allow them to be reborn as Xel’naga.

The group entered the Chamber of Ascension to finally meet the Xel’naga. What they soon found was what brought surprise to everyone but Sweetie: the Xel’naga were all dead. Their remains lie within the ruins of the chamber.

Suddenly, Amon spoke to gloat of his victory. He pulled Tassadar toward him and declared the completion of his new host body while showing it to him in a vision and declared that his endgame would soon begin.

A nearby door opened to reveal a flow of void energies filling the room. The group fled from the chaotic energies and hoped to find a way out of the trap before it was too late.

Legacy: Alarak to the Rescue

While Tassadar, Kerrigan, Sweetie and Lyra were fighting for their lives against Amon’s forces, Vorazun stood by the celestial array observing the movement of the enemies near the ship. She noticed a number of Tal’darim and Moebius Corps transports entering the temple. She could only hope that the Hierarch and Lyra would pull through.

The only company she had on the bridge was a lone Zealot who was helping to monitor the situation. He reported a massive spike of void energies coming from the temple.

Before Vorazun could respond to the news, the two saw a flash and the sound of an explosion. What they saw next put them into a battle stance as a lone Tal’darim warrior appeared before them. Vorazun recognized the intruder from the brief exchange between him and Lyra: Alarak.

The Zealot charged Alarak but was held into a grip of void energies before he was hurled away and knocked unconscious.

Vorazun activated her twin-bladed scythe and charged at Alarak in midair. Alarak crossed his arms to block but Vorazun teleported behind him.

Alarak turned around in time to block a spinning attack from the Matriarch before using void energies to force her back to the celestial array while taking her scythe. He tossed the weapon on the floor next to Vorazun before finally speaking, “I do not come as your enemy, Dark Templar.”

As the First Ascendant approached the Matriarch, she activated a force field around him to imprison him.

Alarak continued, “You must listen to me, Matriarch...Amon’s trap is sprung. Your leader is in grave danger.”

“You think us fools?” Vorazun responded.

“Yes...But that is irrelevant. What is relevant is that Amon has opened a gateway to the Void. Dark energies pour from within, and they will burn through your precious leader, and any who oppose Amon. I can guide you to Tassadar before this fate befalls him as well as my apprentice. If we are bold, we can stop the Dark God’s assault.”

“Am I to believe that the moment you’re released, your blade will not be in my back?” Vorazun said as she picked up her scythe.

“You waste time.” Alarak channeled void energies and overpowered the force field. “Lower your blades! I am Alarak, First Ascendant of the Tal’darim. Amon has betrayed my people. Retribution will be claimed for this, and if your Hierarch survives, he will aid in it! Make your decision.”

Vorazun considered his words for a moment. She had no reason whatsoever to trust the words of a Tal’darim. For all she knew, he could be waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike her down. But if there was a chance that Tassadar and Lyra were in danger, she couldn’t risk their safety over her lack of trust in Alarak. She only had one safer option, “You will take us to Tassadar and Lyra.”

“Most wise.”

To assist in Lyra’s and Tassadar’s rescue, Alarak offered the assistance of his Blood Hunters to support their rescue. Vorazun also brought the High Templar out of stasis for the rescue since their Psionic Storms might be quite useful.

Alarak gave Vorazun the coordinates to Tassadar’s general location. Using the information, Vorazun warped in a group of Zealots and High Templar to the location.

“This path will lead your forces to Tassadar and Lyra. I have done as I promised, Dark Templar. Now go tell your Hierarch that I am waiting for him and tell my apprentice that the time has come. She will know what it means,” Alarak said.

A group of Moebius Marines were spotted at the bottom of some stairs. The High Templar took advantage of the high ground and electrocuted them to death with Psionic Storm.

Another Moebius group ahead was composed of Marines and a Spectre. One High Templar forced the Spectre’s mind into a feedback loop, causing his head to explode. The Zealots gathered the Marines into a group before the High Templar electrocuted them with a Psionic Storm, the ability which had been modified to add more energy to plasma shields.

The Templar located Tassadar, Lyra as well as Kerrigan and Sweetie while they were fighting Hybrid. The Templar engaged the Hybrid at the same time as Kerrigan’s Zerg entering the area to join the fight.

Once the Hybrid were eliminated, Tassadar opened communications with Vorazun. “Vorazun, your forces have arrived just in time. Amon has opened a portal to the Void. It must be shut down before it tears us apart.”

Kerrigan and Sweetie used their forces to bear the brunt of Amon’s assault while Tassadar and Lyra looked for a way to seal the gateway. Karax quickly discovered a number of Void Crystals that could be destroyed to seal the gate.

Kerrigan sent some of her minions as well as Sweetie’s Brood to deal with Amon’s forces.

Lyra, Kerrigan, and Sweetie gathered together with a large group. Sweetie brought her Roaches, Swarm Queens, and a colossal Ultralisk, Kerrigan brought Zerglings, Hydralisks and Ultralisks, Lyra was accompanied by Zealots, Stalkers, Annihilators, Energizers, Blood Hunters and Corsairs.

Under the cover of Disruption Webs, The combined Zerg and Protoss armies engaged the Moebius forces near the first crystal. While the enemy was frantically looking for an opening in the web, they were chased and cut down.

Once the first crystal was secured, Lyra, Kerrigan and Sweetie combined their energies and shattered the crystal.

The second crystal was within a fortified Tal’darim base. While keeping the momentum, a number of Disruption Webs were deployed into the base while Lyra and the Blood Hunters disabled the Photon Cannons by placing them in Void Stasis. During this time, the cloaked warriors targeted the Tal’darim Pylons to make sure the cannons didn’t find them once the stasis fields wore off.

While the defenses were rendered helpless, the base was overrun and the crystal within was smashed in the process.

The remaining Tal’darim base had a lot of defenders and some heavy weaponry protecting the third crystal. To speed things up for destroying the base, the Spear of Adun unleashed its weaponry against it with a series of Solar Lance shots and a Solar Bombardment to take out a large chunk of the base.

The rest was business as usual for the Templar and Zerg as the defenses were disabled by Disruption Webs and Void Stasis. Nothing was left to defend the crystal a few seconds later.

By this time, Amon’s reach had torn apart several of Kerrigan’s hive clusters and everyone knew that the urgency grew with each second.

The large force pushed against the Moebius base that was guarding the remaining Void Crystal that needed to be destroyed to seal the gateway into the Void.

While there were a few Battlecruisers protecting the crystal, it didn’t matter. Once the Disruption Webs were deployed, the Blood Hunters placed the Missile Turrets and Ravens into Void Stasis while the armies tore the Terran base apart. Sweetie and Lyra combined horn blasts and targeted the main reactors of the Battlecruisers in the area to cause them to fall to the ground and into more Moebius equipment.

The Pony duo used their magic to direct a falling Battlecruiser to fall on the Void Crystal. To maximize the damage, Sweetie fired an EM Shot and disabled the shields around the crystal before the Battlecruiser fell and smashed it.

Once the last Void Crystal was destroyed, the gateway to the Void was sealed and Tassadar felt like they had earned a true victory against Amon this day.

Hours later, Tassadar and Lyra returned to the Spear of Adun with their forces while Kerrigan and Sweetie returned to the Leviathan with their Swarms.

Tassadar was speaking to Kerrigan through the ship’s communicator.

“We fought well this day, Kerrigan. Join us. Together we can defeat Amon and send him back into the Void.”

<“My Swarm was broken here, Tassadar… I’ll need time to rebuild my forces. Sweetie’s Brood suffered minimal damage but I’ll need her support to help me rebuild.”>

“There is no time. My people are being consumed, their very flesh turned into Amon’s own. I cannot wait.”

<“Then you must do as I have. Gather allies, subjugate enemies, do whatever you can to ensure victory. Survival is never pretty.”>

Lyra chimed in, “I agree, we already know what we must do to weaken Amon’s overall combat strength and bolster our own. If possible, I’d like to count on your assistance when we are ready to invade Aiur once more. I believe a victory there will bring an end to Amon’s plans.”

Kerrigan smirked, <“Alright...My Swarm should be ready for an assault on Aiur by then.”>

Sweetie got the last word in before the transmission ended, <“Stay safe out there, Lyra.”>

Tassadar looked at Lyra, “You know where we can gather allies and weaken Amon’s forces?”

Lyra smiled, “Yep. It’s risky, but we won’t defeat Amon without some risk. We need to revive the rest of the Purifiers and I bet you know how we are going to do that. Also, we need to get the Tal’darim to defect to our side which should be possible now that Alarak is assisting us.

“We also need to find out where the main headquarters of Moebius Corps is and take it out which should deprive Amon of the ability to reinforce his Hybrid armies. That should also remove Moebius Corps from Amon’s list of allies.”

“We need to hurry and take care of these objectives then. The Golden Armada is destroying world after world and we need to free the Armada while there is still something left of the Koprulu Sector to save.”

Legacy: Unsealing Cybros

Lyra found Alarak exploring the ship to pass the time while the others made sure that their Hierarch was alright. The First Ascendant sensed her presence and turned to acknowledge her. “Ah, Lyra, seems that you needed me to bail you out since your friend, the Matriarch, needed me to point it out to her that you needed assistance.”

Lyra struggled to avoid glaring at Alarak.

“It’s time we made our move against Ma’lash.”

“That’s on the list of things we need to get done quickly but we also need to bring the Purifiers into the fold.”

“You would rather bring aboard machines of questionable loyalty over the most powerful members of the Protoss race?”

“The decision is up to the Hierarch to decide, though your little stunt at the Glacius facility may be a factor in Tassadar’s decision.”

If Alarak was upset about the possibility of the Purifiers being recruited first, he didn’t show it. Instead he silently headed back to the bridge to meet the Hierarch.

Tassadar entered the bridge to find Alarak, Lyra, Zeratul and the Purifier with Fenix’s personality imprint, who had decided to go by the name of Talandar after his chat with Fenix, awaiting him.

Alarak was first to speak, “Tassadar...Hierarch of the Twilight Council. Warlord of the Templar...I had expected so much more.”

Talandar snapped at Alarak, “Arrogance! Watch your words, or my blade will watch them for you.”

Lyra sighed, “Can we please deal with Amon first before Alarak wedges this tentative alliance apart?” Alarak responded with an amused chuckle.

Tassadar decided to get to the point. “You care little for my survival, Alarak. Lyra mentions that you are the key to getting the Tal’darim to defect to us. Is this true?”

“Well, I wouldn’t say ‘defect,’ more like we share a common goal and I need my people to be deprived of Ma’lash’s leadership. Once I am Highlord, I may or may not be willing to win this war for you.” Lyra rolled her eyes at Alarak’s roundabout way of saying ‘yes.’

“Lyra and I encountered Ma’lash on a dying world communing with Amon. We barely escaped with our lives when he began summoning shadows from the Void to stall us.” Zeratul said.

“Hmmph...I take it that he’s still cross with Lyra over her killing his favorite servant?” Alarak asked with a nod from Lyra in response. “Pitiful, holding such a petty grudge over the death of one Protoss. He has no right to lead the Tal’darim.”

“I will make my decision once I have consulted my advisors.” Tassadar said before he ended the meeting.

A short time later, Tassadar met with everyone who could provide some advice to the matter of dealing with Amon. Lyra had already pointed out the main objectives that needed to be done. Vorazun had already sent her elite trackers to locate the headquarters of Moebius Corps while Tassadar had to decide if he wanted to activate the Purifiers first or bring the Tal’darim Death Fleet into the fold. Karax was tasked with continuing his research on the Keystone. Zeratul joined the trackers to search for Moebius Corps.

Artanis told Tassadar that he had faith that the Purifiers could be convinced to join them since they were able to befriend Talandar.

After considering all options, Tassadar decided that the Purifiers would be good to have on their side should matters on Slayn go awry.

Much to Alarak’s chagrin, the Spear of Adun set course for Endion.

Tassadar informed his advisors about the original Purifiers sealed away on a warship called Cybros which was orbiting a forest world called Endion. Rohana and Aldaris were against releasing machines that could not be controlled. Their advice was noted. Talandar noted that the Purifiers have their own personalities and did not need to be controlled as they should behave as if they were still Protoss.

Rohana stated that the Purifiers rebelled against their masters which Talandar countered that anyone in their right mind would rebel against a slave master.

Lyra mentioned that Sweetie had told her that the Protoss once rebelled against Amon eons ago when their race was still young because they suspected Amon of trying to control them. The Protoss asked Lyra how Sweetie knew to which she responded, “The Overmind had a lot of ancient knowledge and that knowledge had been passed on to Bon Bon.” Tassadar considered bringing in a team of scholars at some point to learn about the history of the Protoss from the Overmind’s point of view.

Once the Spear of Adun arrived, Karax picked up Zerg signatures on Endion and concluded that Amon’s Brood would be their next opponent. The stasis field holding Cybros in place was still intact. He also noted that they needed to use a device called the Megalith to disable the stasis lock.

Since they were facing Zerg, Lyra made some adjustments to the troop composition in the war council chamber. She used a setup that specializes in dealing with clusters of enemies due to the usual nature of the Zerg. She went for Zealots, Stalkers, Vanguards, Dark Templars, Energizers, Corsairs and Dark Archons.

Karax accessed Endion’s records and found that the stasis grid was maintained by five locks that the Megalith needed to destabilize to remove the stasis field around Cybros. Providing assistance in the task were a few Colossi that were kept in their own stasis.

The Colossi engaged the minor infestation around the Megalith, using the high ground to their advantage.

Once the Zerg in the area were cleared out, Artanis warped in a Nexus from orbit with Lyra accompanying it. Tassadar ordered Karax to activate the Megalith.

Lyra wasn’t sure what to expect from the Megalith but suspected that they were going to be forced to follow it around and protect it.

In the meantime, Artanis worked fast in getting the Nexus Point set up and providing the necessary support the device needed.

It wasn’t long before the Megalith was fully booted up and emerged from its storage. Once the device was ready to travel, it started heading southwest.

Lyra took whatever forces were available while Artanis warped in an Energizer to accompany Lyra as she escorted the wandering device.

The Zerg resistance was minor and easily incinerated by the Colossi.

Once the Megalith arrived at the first lock, it interacted with it and was safely lowered into the lock. For some reason, Lyra thought, the Zerg didn’t seem to want to attack the Megalith while it was submerged. She decided not to question it and took the time to prepare for when it moved again.

The Energizer transformed to create a power field to allow Artanis to warp in some Stalkers and Zealots.

When the Megalith was ready to move again, Lyra’s forces moved in to deal with some Zerg near the second lock. She cut down a fair number of Zerglings before the Colossi arrived and burned through the rest while Lyra impaled a Spine Crawler with its own tentacle.

The Megalith arrived to interact with the second lock. The Energizer moved to Lyra’s position again and transformed again to create a power field, allowing Artanis to send her some Dark Archons and Dark Templar. When a group of Zerglings approached, Lyra tried out a new technique that caused the Zerglings to attack each other. Lyra finished off the victor.

The Megalith finished with the lock and began moving again, and so did Lyra. The army moved through a canyon that hosted a variety of Zerg minions including a few Ultralisk. Lyra used her Mind Control ability to take command of the Ultralisks. She also teleported to higher ground to deal with some Spine Crawlers.

The Zerg-bolstered escort managed to clear the canyon and led the Megalith to the third lock.

By this point, the Nexus Point was fully established and was able to warp in Vanguard and Colossi to Lyra’s location.

Since the Megalith would be safe while destabilizing locks, Lyra moved ahead to clear the way. Karax notified her that the Zerg were emerging from caves. To seal them, Lyra blasted the rocks with her horn and caused the caverns to collapse.

A small hive cluster ahead proved no problem for the Pony Templar once she sealed the caves around it and sliced up the hive structure. The Colossi cleaned up the minions.

The Megalith safely arrived at the fourth lock and began disabling it. While her forces continued to grow in number, Lyra went ahead to take on more of Amon’s Zerg.

A well established hive cluster awaited her. When Artanis noticed this, he began warping in Corsairs to manipulate the battlefield before they went in.

Once Disruption Webs were in place, Lyra and her forces moved in to take out the hive cluster before the Megalith arrived. She placed the Spore Crawlers and Overseers into Void Stasis to prevent the Zerg from finding her before turning groups of Zerg against each other and controlling the Ultralisks to tear their own hive cluster apart.

Meanwhile the Colossi were burning a path through the area with the Vanguard in front bombarding the area in front of them.

With the hive cluster cleared, the Megalith had a clear path to the last lock that would remove the stasis field.

Lyra and the Protoss knew that the Zerg would focus their attention to Cybros now and the possibility of Hybrid among the invaders was very high.

Legacy: Return to Slayn

Lyra returned to the Spear of Adun after receiving a shocking reminder about how dangerous Protoss technology can be. The display of Purifier might showed that they could be dangerous enemies or powerful allies.

She could only hope that Tassadar and Talandar could work out the details of the new alliance.

Lyra arrived on the bridge in time to watch Tassadar and Talandar speaking to Executor Clolarion who spoke for the Purifiers. After a brief diplomatic meeting with the machine leader, Clolarion agreed to join forces with the Daelaam as long as they were treated as equals and had Talandar speak for them.

Alarak was growing impatient with Tassadar, believing that the ‘errand’ they had been on had been a waste of time. Lyra began growing impatient herself with Alarak’s antagonism of her friends.

Karax’s research on the Purifiers led him to believe that the machines worked together using an artificial Khala that was devoid of emotion and would not be something that Amon would be able to infiltrate, much to the Protoss’ relief. Though Lyra had a feeling that the connection was similar to a Terran network.

Zeratul had recently returned with the tracking party to inform them that they had discovered where Moebius was hiding their headquarters. Their primary base of operations was in an asteroid field collectively known as Revanscar.

Lyra had a feeling that Revanscar Station was not going to be an easy place to take out.

First things first, it was time to bring the Tal’darim into the fold. The Spear of Adun set course for Slayn.

Lyra always knew that she would return to the dismal planet, Slayn. She had spent at least half of her time in the Koprulu Sector on the planet, as Alarak’s gladiator. She had finally returned to finish what was begun a year ago: the erosion of Ma’lash’s rule.

Tassadar stared in awe at the numerous Tal’darim ships ready for battle. “It’s an armada!” he said.

“Behold, the Death Fleet under Amon’s command, poised on laying waste to all life in the sector,” Alarak declared.

“Then we had best act swiftly.”

“Rak’Shir, usurping by ritual combat, cannot be rushed. Its rites demand careful preparations if they are to be accepted.”

“We are in orbit above a hostile world with an imposing fleet, and you speak of preparation?”

“I intend to depose Ma’lash, the ruler of an entire people, and bring them under my thrall. You will aid me. And in return, I will remove the Tal’darim from this conflict. That was our bargain. To do this, the ritual must be carried out as tradition demands.”

Tassadar turns and walks away. “This bargain grows less appealing by the moment.”

Lyra decides to step into the conversation, “Really? I don’t recall having to do much preparation for my duels.”

“Your opponents didn’t have a number of powerful guardians that would greatly decrease your chances of success if you dueled them immediately. Slaying his guardians will increase my chances of making a successful bid for leadership.”

Lyra nodded in understanding before sending a telepathic message to the Hierarch telling him about her own plans. While Tassadar was concerned about her safety, he also knew that her plan would be preferable to Alarak’s.

When the Spear of Adun approached the planet, Alarak waived off the fleet. Lyra released a breath she didn’t know she was holding because she was worried that Ma’lash might have ordered the fleet to drive away any ships coming into the system.

The Daelaam arrived near where the guardians of Ma’lash were gathering their power. While Alarak did not expect too much resistance from the guardians, the Tal’darim would give their lives to protect them along with the Hybrid in the area.

A bigger problem arose, however, when the Daelaam noticed that they were near a Terrazine geyser. While Lyra had gained a strong resistance to the gas the real problem was that Amon was active since her last visit to the dark planet. Using the Terrazine, Amon was able to open small rifts from the Void and unleash his infinite shadow army. While the shadows were pale representations of what they imitate, their numbers made up for the lack of power.

Since the geyser erupted frequently, Artanis had to work fast to get proper defenses set up for his Nexus Point before Amon’s army and Void Shadows moved against them.

Karax programmed the Stargates to warp in assault ships for the operation, namely Void Rays. Lyra was glad to see assault ships on her side again since they should be effective against the Hybrid.

It wasn’t long before the Terrazine geyser erupted, lifting the veil between the material plane and the Void.

Lyra saw a menagerie of Void Shadows that were shaped as every type of soldier and ship from the Terrans, Zerg and Protoss. The amusing thing about facing the creatures was that they still couldn’t see her and they vanished in a puff of smoke from one slash.

For the time being, the Void Shadows only attacked from the north of the Nexus Point, making the position easy to defend.

Soon, her fun came to an end when the Terrazine lifted from the area and the Void Shadows returned from whence they came.

Alarak informed everyone that the guardians were watching over a few shrines in the area and he wanted them killed slowly and painfully.

Artanis spent the time between eruptions building up defenses before the Void Shadows came again.

Lyra took a group of Dark Templar with her to scout the area north of the Nexus point and to see how well defended the first guardian was.

She found a small base around the shrine. First, she destroyed the Photon Cannons using long range blasts from her horn. Once the detectors were destroyed, the Dark Templar moved in and used their warp blades to tear apart the structures and Tal’darim. Lyra used her psionic powers to either take control of ships or to confuse the pilots to make them fight each other.

The guardian sensed the Dark Templar and began firing powerful void bolts at them, killing a few before the rest retreated.

Lyra walked into the guardian’s detection range and cheerfully greeted the guardian.

“Lyra Heartst--” was all he managed to say before she teleported to the top of the shrine and kicked him off. While the guardian was tumbling after his fall, Lyra teleported in front of his path and unleashed a psionic shockwave that sent him flying back into the shrine. Before he could regain his bearings, Lyra teleported in front of him and stabbed him in the chest with both blades. The guardian faded away in seconds.

After surviving another wave from the Void, Artanis sent a small fleet of Void Rays against the Tal’darim base southwest of the Nexus Point.

While Artanis was unleashing the might of the powerful assault ships, Lyra moved toward the second shrine. Karax warped in a Pylon so Artanis could warp in more Dark Templar to Lyra’s position.

Once ready, she and her shadowy hunters engaged a small outpost. After putting the Photon Cannons in the area in Void Stasis, the Dark Templar tore into the outpost, leaving a few inactive Photon Cannons when the stasis wore off.

Once Lyra and her Dark Templar entered the base protecting the second shrine, it was the same procedure when dealing with Protoss bases: disable the Photon Cannons, target the Pylons, wipe out the ground troops and force the ships to fight one another.

The second Guardian of Ma’lash knew that the offender of his Highlord was coming so he erected a barrier around himself to avoid the same beatdown the previous guardian received.

Noticing his strategy, Lyra grabbed a Destroyer, an assault ship of the Tal’darim, in her magic and smashed it into the shrine. The guardian was flown off the shrine and accidentally deactivated his barrier in his panic. Lyra teleported to his estimated landing point and held her palms ahead of her before deploying her blades. The guardian landed in Lyra’s hands and was impaled as a result.

<”Not as slow and painful as I would have preferred but still brutal,”> Alarak commented.

By the time Lyra finished off the second Guardian of Ma’lash, Artanis’ Void Ray fleet had blasted through the third base and finished off the third guardian. Both groups began heading north and west respectively to deal with the last guardian and intended to meet Lyra on the way.

Lyra and the fleet each burned down an outpost on their way to the last base. Once they met, they pushed their way into the last base.

While the last Guardian of Ma’lash expected to be attacked by Void Rays, a different outcome awaited him as a pair of hands unexpectedly touched his back and he felt his life force quickly draining away. Before he could react, he was kicked off the shrine and faceplanted into the ground. As he turned around, he saw, to his horror, an aquamarine Pony wielding a huge crimson blade that was about as long as she was. This was a mere split second before he felt himself split in half from a vertical slash.

With one last force of will, the guardian said, “The Dark God shall be your end…”

He faded away immediately after.

“Well done, Lyra. I didn’t even have to get my hands dirty,” Alarak said as if he were proud of sitting back and letting her do all the dirty work.

Alarak approached the site for him to challenge Ma’lash. “Now the time has come. Highlord! Hear me I invoke the rite of--,” was all he managed to say before an amber-colored light flashed before him before an aquamarine-colored hoof impacted against his chestplate, sending him flying into a wall.

Lyra lowered her hoof and stood at the site for her to invoke the rite before she shouted, “Ma’lash! I, First Ascendant Lyra Heartstrings invoke the rite of Rak’Shir! Fight me according to the laws of the Tal’darim, or die a coward.”

Ma’lash appeared before the face of the one he held a deep grudge against. “I was hoping you would challenge me. I will take great pleasure in tearing you apart, Lyra Heartstrings. We meet in combat at daybreak.”

Ma’lash teleported away, leaving Lyra a little nervous about what she just did and hoped that Alarak wouldn’t be too sore for stealing his thunder and planting him in a wall.

Author's Note

I wonder how many readers who have been paying attention to the story knew this was coming since before WoL.:pinkiehappy:

Legacy: A New Highlord

Lyra’s return to the Spear of Adun was met with mixed expressions. Rohana and Aldaris were glad that someone they had some degree of trust was willing to take the burden of leadership and bring the Tal’darim under Daelaam control. Fenix and Talandar were highly amused by what Lyra did. Zeratul and Vorazun were hopeful that installing Lyra as the Highlord of the Tal’darim was a good idea. Tassadar and Artanis were concerned about their student/friend’s safety with regards to the duel and the leadership should she succeed.

Alarak was obviously furious about what Lyra had done. All of his years of planning had fallen through the cracks because of his curiosity in the potential of the Unicorn.

Once Alarak and Lyra saw each other, the former drew his bane blades while Lyra drew her’s in response. The Zealots around them drew their blades in anticipation of Alarak’s aggression.

The Tal’darim stomped his way toward Lyra who prepared to defend herself. He stopped when he was a few feet from the Pony Templar. “You ungrateful wretch! You stole my glorious conquest of my people. After keeping you alive for three years, you repay it by stealing my Rak’Shir. If I wasn’t sure that I would be struck down where I stood by the Daelaam, I would eviscerate you and deliver you piece by piece to that other Pony.”

When Alarak was finished with his death threats, Lyra finally got a chance to say something, “Maybe you should have been down there helping to kill the Guardians of Ma’lash instead of making me do all your dirty work. In my opinion, I earned the right to challenge Ma’lash more than you did. And, based on what he said, he wanted to duel me more than you.

“Besides, I still intend on giving you the Highlord position once we have dealt with Amon. You spent decades, maybe even centuries, preparing to claim the ruling position. What’s a couple more years for you?”

Alarak growled, “You honestly think that I would take your charity?”

Lyra glared at the Tal’darim. “I would suggest calming down and thinking about the long term. If we duel, then you run the risk of your life’s work amounting to nothing. If you can be patient, then we both get what we want in the end. You gain nothing by unnecessarily risking it all now.”

As much as he would have loved to claim his revenge on the Pony Templar, he knew she was right. He really did not like having something so important simply handed to him, but throwing it all away in a fit of anger would have been a waste.

He had no choice but to watch and wait a little while longer.

Tassadar approached Lyra on the bridge. Filled with concern, he asked her, “Are you sure that challenging Ma’lash to a duel is a good idea? You know that his servants and the Hybrid are sure to interfere.”

Lyra smiled and nodded. “Yep, that’s exactly what you can expect from him during the Rak’Shir.”

“Then why?”

“Because I am given the same courtesy. As a rule of Rak’Shir, others may declare themselves as the combatant’s supplicants. Once declared, they can support me with their own psionic power. The more of our warriors supporting me, the better I can push Ma’lash into a fiery death in the planet’s core. The Daelaam will declare for me and will support me in getting rid of Ma’lash. Ma’lash will also have his servants and the Hybrid declare for him. However, no supplicants can directly interfere with the fight. Only me and Ma’lash will be fighting each other. Of course, that doesn’t mean that the supplicants can’t fight each other. I’ll be counting on you to give me all the power I need to win this duel.”

Tassadar felt better about the situation now that he knew that there was something he could do to help Lyra.

On the eve of the day before the biggest fight of her life, Lyra made all the necessary preparations to give the Daelaam the best chance against Ma’lash’s Tal’darim and Amon’s Hybrid.

With all preparations made, Lyra began to rest and mentally prepare herself for daybreak.

Lyra and Ma’lash met in the arena for their fated battle. Before long a translucent spiral of energy formed around the two of them and their battle began.

Ma’lash began by firing bolts at Lyra. She managed to dodge a few and blocked the rest using the focusers that she still wore even if she hardly ever used them these days.

Lyra retaliated by firing a few small blasts from her horn which Ma’lash blocked.

The two continued exchanging blasts of psionic and magical nature.

Meanwhile, the Daelaam gathered their forces and prepared to support Lyra. Tal’darim Zealots gathered around the combatants but it wasn’t enough to force Lyra back. Artanis made sure they wouldn’t by sending Centurions to dispatch the Zealots. The Centurions had greater numbers and managed to eliminate the first wave. At the same time, the Centurions contributed their psionic power to Lyra and the two began moving toward Ma’lash’s side of the arena.

Ma’lash noticed the movement and began summoning more of his supplicants to his side, calling in his Stalkers and Vanguard. Artanis responded in kind by sending Dragoons and Annihilators to counter his reinforcements.

As the fight continued, Ma’lash needed to focus more on his opponent as he was getting the sense that her own psionic power was still growing stronger and he could tell that it wasn’t from the supplicants. He started firing concentrated beams of void energy at the Pony Templar which she blocked but winced as she felt the burning energies upon her fur.

Thanks to the arena, Lyra’s movements were restricted because the field around them didn’t expand. She was forced to either block or used the most minimal of movements to dodge any of Ma’lash’s attacks.

Ma’lash was ruthless in his combat ability and continued to fire bolts and beams at Lyra while she found openings in his attack patterns to launch psionic blasts and horn beams at the Highlord.

Soon, Ma’lash started calling on the services of the Hybrid and his minions to attack Artanis’ Nexus Point. Lyra had no reason to worry about Artanis and continued pushing against Ma’lash.

After Ma’lash fired a volley of void energy at Lyra, she used the opening to teleport a few feet to be in pointblank range of Ma’lash before she forced him back into the energy wall with a Psionic Shockwave.

Ma’lash retaliated by creating numerous illusory copies of himself and fired a volley of bolts from all sides. However, only one set was real and she knew who the real Ma’lash was thanks to her detector vision. His attacks were easy to dodge when she knew which were real.

The Highlord continued ordering his troops to attack Artanis’ Nexus Point under the false promise of ascension to becoming Xel’naga.

Lyra had enough of his lies and shouted the truth of how Xel’naga were made; that they needed Purity of Form and Purity of Essence to become Xel’naga. Amon would never ascend anyone to become Xel’naga because that would mean he would have to give up his own life to ascend someone.

“You have no proof of this, Lyra Heartstrings.” Ma’lash said while the fight continued.

“You know that I’ve been to Ulnar and witnessed the truth myself. I saw how the Xel’naga created the universe. I have seen how the Infinite Cycle works. The Xel’naga of old said that they gave their lives to create new Xel’naga. Amon killed them to break that cycle. Why would he ascend anyone if he wanted the cycle to end? It sounds to me like Amon is lying to the Tal’darim.”

The other Tal’darim wanted to dispute Lyra’s claims but there had been rumors spreading that there were dead Xel’naga discovered at Ulnar. They had no idea whether Lyra’s claims could be trusted, but there were also rumors that the Hybrid attempted to destroy lost knowledge, as if they wanted to prevent something they didn’t want others knowing from being known. The seeds of doubt were planted in the heads of the Tal’darim.

The fight continued and Ma’lash had his most powerful Hybrid supporting him while the Daelaam continued pushing back, forcing the two into a stalemate.

In that moment, Alarak arrived on the battlefield and started slaying Hybrid while providing his own support for Lyra.

Ma’lash was being pushed closer and closer to his own end. His own concerns for his life increased when he realized that his supplicants began to hesitate when they believed there was a real possibility that they would never ascend and that Amon may have been lying to them.

If Alarak could make facial expressions at this time, it would be one of sadistic glee.

Ma’lash was soon forced back near his end of the arena. The Daelaam had broken through the defenses keeping the Highlord from the pit.

In one desperate move, he grabbed Lyra by the wrists and continuously assaulted her with void energies and making her writhe in pain.

“Our master has already won, Lyra Heartstrings. Why would you lead our people to extinction?” Ma’lash asked.

Summoning every ounce of will within her, she focused her energies through her horn and a mana blade manifested from it. Lyra slashed down with her third blade and forced Ma’lash to jump back in time to avoid her strike.

“I will lead them, Ma’lash. I will lead them to glorious conquest where we vanquish your master. Your lies end here!” Lyra responded. She charged up a powerful mix of psionic, magical and void energies into her horn. When Ma’lash saw what was coming, he tried to block. When she released the blast, there was nothing he could do to stop himself from flying back into the pit where he met a fiery, molten death.

The other Tal’darim bore witness to history in the making, Lyra turned to the witnesses and put up her darkest facade and declared, “Hear me, Tal’darim! By the rite of Rak’shir, I am your Highlord! A new Tal’darim dawns this day! Ma’lash promised you lies. There is no ascension. The Tal’darim will never be uplifted. Amon will have no allies aside from the Hybrid. Everyone else will be annihilated.

“There is only one fate for those who deceive the Tal’darim and incur our wrath...Amon must die!”

The Tal’darim cheered for their new Highlord and chanted her name.

Lyra shuddered on the inside as she heard such terrible words come out of her mouth. She knew she was normally not like that but given the Tal’darim culture, she needed her darker persona to avoid showing weakness to the savage culture.

She wished Bon Bon was around because she really needed a hug right then.

Author's Note

There you have it, the dawn of Highlord Lyra Heartstrings of the Tal'darim. May her enemies tremble before her glorious might.

There are 4 chapters left in the LotV campaign. One interlude chapter stands between LotV and the epilogue missions. The climax will soon be upon us.

Legacy: The Crumbling Foundation

Back on the Spear of Adun, Tassadar, Artanis and Fenix did what they could to help ease Lyra’s anxiety after her speech to the Tal’darim. Given the culture she was raised from, she was now leading a culture that was the opposite of Equestrian culture in almost every way.

Alarak walked up to the stressed Pony and appeared like he was going to gloat. With an amused tone, he said, “Now that you are the new leader of my people. Highlord, how does it feel to be a leader?”

Lyra ignored the Tal’darim’s tone and quickly calmed herself before responding, “It’ll take some getting used to, but I’ve been known to adapt easily.”

“Hrmph...Savor your position while it lasts.” Alarak walked away.

“I only pray he does not betray us anytime soon,” Tassadar commented.

“If he wants to claim my position from me, it has to be through Rak’Shir. His people won’t acknowledge him unless he claims it through ritual combat...or when I simply give it to him. The Tal’darim won’t like the latter option, but I don’t plan on staying in the Koprulu Sector forever.”

“And what about those who do not want to believe that Amon betrayed them?”

“There’s nothing I can do to make them change their minds. I may end up with more Rak’Shir challenges than ever, but in the end, they will learn the truth.”

Since Tassadar had enough talk about the Tal’darim, he decided to change the subject. “Now that we have secured allies in the Purifiers and the Tal’darim, we shall be going to Revanscar and remove Moebius Corps from this war. Do you have any ideas on dealing with the rest of his allies before we move on his host body on Aiur?”

Lyra shook her head. “No, according to Karax’s research, the only way to free the Golden Armada is to extract Amon from the Khala. Neither Kerrigan nor Bon Bon can steal control of Amon’s Zerg while there are still Hybrid around to control them. A victory at Revanscar will make sure that no new Hybrid will be made but it means nothing for the ones already out there.”

“Then we must make do with taking away the Tal’darim and Moebius Corps from Amon and engage in an all out assault against Amon on Aiur.” Lyra nodded.

While in transit to Revanscar, Tassadar held a meeting with Karax and Vorazun. The Dark Templar gave all the data that Zeratul gathered on the station. Karax commented that the Spear of Adun would be unable to enter the asteroid field but it could still be traversed by Carriers.

Once the Spear of Adun arrived near Revanscar Station, the first thing everyone noticed was that the Moebius ships they saw in the area were not moving to attack them; a suspicious ploy.

Suddenly, a number of Moebius Battlecruisers decloaked and a bright flash severely damaged the ship’s shields enough for Moebius to infiltrate the Spear of Adun. Since the Templar were going to be busy repelling the ship’s invaders, Tassadar tasked Karax with leading a counterattack with Lyra to strike at the heart of the station. Alarak gave the phasesmith a look that told him ‘do not fail us’.

While Lyra was observing the Nexus Point being set up, Karax did a short range scan of the facility and confirmed that Amon’s Hybrid were created there. He discovered three power cores that would destabilize the facility if destroyed and make destroying the rest of the facility much easier.

Karax’s Nexus Point was set up on a small movable platform near a scarce supply of resources.

Lyra scoured the small platform west of their mobile platform and slashed apart a few Vikings and Goliaths before a Probe moved in and returned any resource crates to the Nexus Point.

Once Karax gained access to the platform controls, Lyra moved ahead by teleporting to the next platform near the mobile platform’s next destination. A few Vikings and Goliaths were near her teleportation destination as well as a pair of Missile Turrets.

When Lyra saw the threat, she worked fast by hurling one of the Vikings into a Missile Turret and teleported near its smoldering remains, allowing her to hide from the detection range of the other turret. A magical blast from her horn destroyed the other turret before she slashed a pair of Goliaths.

In the main area of the platform stood a pair of Bunkers and a Missile Turret. There were also a pair of Wraiths and Vikings defending the rest of the platform. After Lyra blasted the turret, she smashed the Vikings and Wraiths against each other before infiltrating the Bunkers and dispatching the troops within.

Once the platform was secure, Karax moved the mobile platform north to dock with the secured platform and started exploiting the resources at its destination.

Tassadar informed Karax that the Daelaam were having difficulty repelling Moebius and the Hybrid on the Spear of Adun and ordered him to destroy the stasis chambers on the station.

Karax intended on moving the platform left next so he had the Carriers and a few Corsairs move ahead and clear out the next destination. It wasn’t long before the platform was cleared out.

Soon, the Nexus Point was getting constantly harassed by squadrons of Vikings, Banshees and Battlecruisers. Lyra bolstered the Carrier fleet by using her Mind Control ability on the Battlecruisers and freeing the minds of the thralls within.

The fleet cleared the next platform and destroyed one of the stasis chambers before the Nexus Point moved up. While the Probes started exploiting the resources in the area, the fleet moved toward the main Moebius platform. Lyra used a series of teleports to get to the main platform.

Once she and the fleet arrived, the platform was slowly overpowered by Lyra and the fleet. Ravens and Missile Turrets were placed into Void Stasis by Lyra’s ability while every piece of Terran hardware was either blasted, smashed or Mind Controlled.

The first of the power cores were blasted by Carrier interceptors. More mind controlled Battlecruisers joined the fleet and pushed into the Moebius base.

Overwhelming firepower and defecting Battlecruisers proved too much for Moebius as their best defenses were wiped out building by building and ship by ship.

The most guarded power core was soon blasted by the ships while Lyra moved south, smashing, slashing and blasting everything that got in her way.

With the facility defenses crippled as they were, Moebius almost completely halted their attack on the Spear of Adun to defend the last power core.

Lyra personally destroyed the last stasis chamber just before the fleet pushed against the last of the Moebius Corps defenses which were vastly outgunned by the swarm of Interceptors.

Once the last of the power cores were destroyed, the fleet cleared the station and everything that could be salvaged was warped back to the Spear of Adun. Lyra and Karax soon followed. Tassadar informed Karax that the Moebius Corps were repelled before they could reach the Solar Core so the ship’s weapon systems were at the phasesmith’s command and the fate of Revanscar Station was in his hands.

Unleashing everything that the Spear of Adun had upon the station, the failing space station was obliterated in a bombardment of photon energies.

Without its headquarters, the overall threat of Moebius Corps upon the sector was reduced to a small number of thralls that were no threat to any of the strong factions of the Koprulu Sector.

Without Revanscar, all Hybrid production for Amon’s forces had come to a sudden halt.

On the Spear of Adun, Tassadar addressed all of his advisors, “Amon’s Hybrid facility lies in ruin. His Hybrid armies shattered. And yet, for the briefest of moments, we lingered on the cusp of ruin. We endured because of the actions of our two brave Templar. In the midst of darkness, I have seen a light...I have seen a defiant hope.” He addressed Karax. “Karax of the Khalai, you were born a craftsman from a caste of engineers. But now, you stand as a warrior. Today it is clear that the age of castes has come to its end. Today we must all become Templar!”

Lyra smiled as the phasesmith was given the honor of being the one who proved that in the new age, all Protoss were equal.

Legacy: Salvation Part 1

The calm before the storm had come.

Despite all of the devastation going on all around the Koprulu Sector, the valiant Daelaam Protoss finally had the chance to turn the momentum of the End War in their direction.

With the Purifiers on their side, the Protoss had the means of efficiently tearing into the numberless Broods of Zerg under Amon’s command.

With the Tal’darim under Lyra’s control, Amon’s Protoss allies had been drastically reduced to only the enslaved Golden Armada while the Tal’darim Death Fleet was at the Daelaam’s command.

With the destruction of Revanscar Station, the threat of the Moebius Corps had been all but neutralized. Without Terran ingenuity, Amon had been effectively cut off from his supply of Hybrid. The apocalyptic army of abominations had become a limited number.

All that was left to do was to face the Fallen Xel’naga on Aiur and commence with the plan to thrust the Dark God back into the Void.

The leaders and advisors of the Daelaam alliance gathered for one last strategy meeting before they set course for Aiur.

In attendance were Tassadar, Artanis, Fenix, Karax, Rohana, Vorazun, Zeratul, Talandar, Aldaris, Alarak and Lyra.

Tassadar began, “Everyone is in attendance. Let us commence with the meeting.”

“In order to remove Amon from the Khala, we must charge the Keystone to its limits for it to effectively trap Amon for even a moment. In that moment, every one of our warriors must sever their nerve cords without hesitation. Only then will he have no hold on this plane of existence and be thrust back into the Void,” Karax said.

“That’s all well and good, but we still have the matter of Amon’s host body to destroy. As much as I would love to watch millions of our people die to Amon’s new body, I would like to live long enough to claim the place I had desired for centuries,” Alarak said.

“Loathe I am to agree with the wretch, he is right. We need to destroy Amon’s host body before we remove him from the Khala. Lest we have a much bigger issue on our hands,” Vorazun said.

“Before all of this can happen, however, we must slow down the Golden Armada. Once Amon learns of our plans, he will recall the Armada and we will engage in a fight we cannot win, even with the Tal’darim Death Fleet,” Zeratul said. Alarak felt a little insulted that the Dark Prelate belittled the pride of the Tal’darim.

Rohana sighed, “Though it pains me greatly to even suggest this, I fear we have no choice. In order to prevent the Golden Armada from quickly returning to Aiur, we must destroy Aiur’s sacred psionic matrix that powers the planet. Without the psi-matrix, the ships will be forced to return to Aiur on their own power. This will give us the time we need to commence the other two phases of our operation without facing the full brunt of the Armada.”

“I will contact Raynor and Bonnie. With any luck we’ll receive reinforcements from them to help against Amon’s Brood,” Lyra said.

Alarak scoffed at how Lyra addressed Sweetie with such a nickname, “Using such cutesy names is unbecoming for a Tal’darim leader.” He earned a glare for his comment. “Besides, this optimism is dangerous. We could destroy them all from orbit and not waste such time.”

“Because that is a cowardly move that could only be thought up by a cowardly mind, Alarak. Besides, we don’t know whether he has something to protect his host body from an orbital bombardment,” Lyra countered.

“What we face is a true horror, but we must endure it. Ready yourselves. The final confrontation draws near, and we will meet it head on,” Tassadar said.

Once the preparations were complete, the Spear of Adun began its return to Aiur.

“The psi-matrix’s power structures are accessible from three locations across Aiur.” Rohana pointed at the locations on the holographic representation of Aiur. “We must divide our forces to destroy them. You must decide who goes with whom, Hierarch.”

“I have already decided, Rohana. We will divide into three teams. I will accompany Vorazun and Alarak to one structure. Karax, Fenix and Talandar will be the second team while Artanis, Lyra and Zeratul will make the third team,” Tassadar said.

“I see...I shall coordinate you and your Executors’ efforts from aboard the Spear of Adun. We can begin as soon as you are ready.”

The first target was the Citadel of the Executor in the Antioch province. Tassadar, Vorazun and Alarak entered the infested area.

Alarak unleashed a wave of destruction against a nearby group of Zerglings. When he saw how easily they were slain, he could only scoff. “So these are the Zerg who defeated you? Pitiful...They too shall fall to my power. Tell me, how did you lose Aiur to these animals? Did they leap up and chew apart your starships?”

“Lyra rolled her eyes, <”Amon uplifted this race for a reason, Alarak. From what I have seen of his work so far, it’s obvious that he’s not an idiot. I wouldn’t underestimate the Zerg’s capabilities if I were you. Besides, if Amon were an idiot, what would that say about the Tal’darim?”>

Alarak had nothing to say about that.

A group of Zerg ahead had an Overseer hovering above them to detect Vorazun. Tassadar unleashed his own ability, Psionic Cloud that electrocuted the Overseer out of the sky before Vorazun engaged the Zerg unhindered with Alarak unleashing destruction.

A locked gate stood in the group’s way, but Vorazun had a way around as she used her Shadow Dash to teleport over a gap and dealt with a couple of Zerg groups. By the time she made it to the gate control, Alarak was already getting impatient.

Once the group reunited, they continued through the citadel. Tassadar drew the Zerg toward him with a Psionic Vortex, allowing Vorazun to use her Shadow Fury to slice into the Zerg and Alarak’s Destruction Wave finished whatever Tassadar drew in.

The next area had a continuous flow of reinforcements coming from Nydus Worms. Once Tassadar destroyed the Overseers, Vorazun infiltrated the area and dispatched the Nydus Worms. The same strategy was employed with the worms further ahead, using Alarak to gain the enemies’ attention.

Another gate barred their way. This time, Vorazun’s infiltration route was patrolled by numerous Overseers with Mutalisks above her. Remaining as cautious as possible, she timed her movements with the patrols and managed to avoid their gaze.

Once past the patrol, Vorazun activated the gate to allow Tassadar and Alarak to go further.

The last leg of their run for the psi-matrix structure was guarded by Swarm Hosts and Spine Crawlers with Overseers observing the entire path.

Tassadar disposed of the Overseers, allowing Vorazun to deal with the Swarm Hosts while Tassadar and Alarak distracted the spawned Locusts.

The chamber where the structure was located was sealed. Alarak decided he would use brute force and blast open the chamber. While Alarak was charging up for a powerful void blast, Tassadar and Vorazun worked together to keep the Zerg at bay for a full minute before Alarak released a small destructive wave that wiped out the nearby Zerg before firing a powerful void beam that pierced the door and annihilated the first psi-matrix structure.

While Alarak was reveling in his own personal glory, Tassadar informed Rohana that his team had destroyed the first power structure.

Once the first team reported their success, the second team of Karax, Fenix, and Talandar, who were on standby at the Ancient Temple Grounds, were informed by Rohana that they were free to begin. She also warned that the Hybrid were moving to defend the remaining structures.

Through analysis of void energies, Karax learned how to reclaim robotic units and structures from Amon.

Ahead of the trio stood a pair of corrupted Zealots and an Immortal. Karax took control of the machine and left the pilot helplessly screaming in rage from within his own Immortal.

A group of corrupted Zealots and Archons were ahead. Since none were robotic, Karax simply deployed some Photon Cannons to assist. Fenix blanketed the area with a barrage from his customized phase disruptors.

A small path to their right led to a moderately sized group of corrupted Zealots and Archons. Karax reclaimed a few Immortals and Sentries as well as a Gateway and a Robotics Facility.

Using whatever resources were near him, Karax used the buildings to produce a few Immortals and Sentries.

Another path gained them more Immortals and Sentries while an adjacent path gained the phasesmith an Immortal and a pair of Reavers.

The last side path contained a Colossus and Immortal. Once the machines were reclaimed and the living corrupted killed, Karax took control of a Robotics Support and returned to a nearby Robotics Facility to construct more Colossi.

Once Karax felt like he had enough of an army built or reclaimed, he, Fenix and Talandar moved up to an energy barrier that Karax deactivated to gain access to the psi-matrix structure.

The structure was guarded by a Hybrid Behemoth and a force of different types of Hybrid. While the machines engaged the Hybrid, Fenix bombarded the are around the Hybrid before firing a powerful shot that severely wounded the Behemoth. Talandar jumped into the frenzy by slashing apart hybrid with his powerful mechanical claws.

Once the machines won the battle of flesh verses metal, Karax overloaded the power structure and caused it to explode.

Unfortunately, the psi-matrix wasn’t designed to be destroyed and Karax’s as well as Alarak’s actions had caused a massive overflow of psionic energy to spread all over Aiur. Karax warned Rohana of the impending danger that he wanted relayed to Lyra’s group.

In the Xel’naga caverns where the last power structure was kept, Lyra and the others already noticed the psionic energy beginning to fill the cavern like an electric tide. Vorazun and Talandar sent some aid for the trio along with a group of Tal’darim who admired Lyra just in time for the energy tide to start encroaching on their position.

The Zerg entered the caverns to get in their way but Lyra wiped out most of the group with her Storm Charge while Zeratul used his Shadow Strike to kill an Ultralisk.

A variety of Zerg with some Aberrations stood in their way next in large numbers. Lyra had no time to deal with them so she killed most of them with her Void Drain and finished the rest with a Drain Blast.

Lyra used the same tactic to eliminate a wave of Infested Terrans.

Talandar reported that his forces were destroying a hive cluster that was ahead. When Lyra’s group arrived, the Purifier force joined with Lyra.

The force continued their hasty charge into the caverns with the energy wave right behind them, cutting and blasting their way through the Zerg.

Vorazun reported that they were closing in on her Dark Templars’ position. Once they were found, they had already destroyed the last hive cluster in the caverns.

Vorazun also reported a number of Nydus Worms guarding the final power structure.

While the Protoss engaged the Zerg charging at them, Lyra teleported to each Nydus Worm and decapitated each one.

When the final power structure was in sight, Lyra decided to handle the matter quickly and completely drain every Zerg in the area and drive that energy right into the structure, shattering it.

Rohana congratulated Lyra for giving the Protoss the time they needed to begin the next phase of their plan.

With the Golden Armada stalled, the time came for a direct assault on Amon’s host body.

Rohana warped everyone out of the caverns to prepare for phase two.

Legacy: Salvation Part 2

With the Psionic Matrix destroyed, Aiur’s main power source was gone. Without power, the Golden Armada was greatly delayed in their return since the planetary warp conduits were deactivated. Tassadar figured that Amon had likely ordered the Armada to return by now. They would need to act fast and destroy Amon’s host body that was constructed from the flesh of countless Protoss and Zerg.

Since all four of the factions were attacking Amon’s forces from different angles, Lyra didn’t need to concern herself with which warriors to bring to the battle.

Preliminary examinations of the area revealed that Amon’s host body was protected by a field of void energy, making conventional attacks pointless. This made Lyra glad that she didn’t agree on Alarak’s assessment of simply bombarding the planet as that would have destroyed the planet and spared Amon.

Large concentrations of Zerg, corrupted Protoss and Hybrid were located in the vicinity of Amon’s host body. They would be in for a huge fight. The concentration of void energies in the area also suggested that Void Shadows would harass them.

Once prepared, Lyra and the Protoss prepared to warp down to the area where his body was located.

Suddenly, Lyra felt something powerful and malevolent invade her mind. The dark, gravelly voice of Amon spoke to her.

“Why do you seek to defend a race that is fated to fade into oblivion? Why continue your struggle for life? Your gods, your Xel’naga, are but newborns to me. My power is superior to even theirs. A new age is dawning, and you, your people, and all the failed creations of my kind have no place in it.”

“Big talk for someone whose plans are in danger of failure. Speaking as if you already won is only going to make your defeat more embarrassing,” Lyra countered.

Amon didn’t respond and the oppressive presence on Lyra’s mind disappeared.

The void energies around the shards that were protecting Amon were draining the land of life. The field around the shards would twist and sear any lifeform and machine that entered them.

Artanis and Tassadar were accompanied by Lyra as they set up a Nexus Point in an area that was somehow not claimed by their enemies. The Khalai forces that accompanied them were composed of Zealots, Dragoons, Immortals, Avengers, Sentries, Phoenixes, High Templars, Arbiters, Reavers and Carriers.

Artanis had to be highly defensive while he built up his forces. The attacks from the Void Shadows were consistent and growing in intensity over time. A nearby Void Shard made access to their Nexus Point much easier.

While warping in more advanced units for dealing with the shard, Artanis had to build a strong defense of Photon Cannons, Khaydarin Monoliths and Shield Batteries.

After some time of defending, Artanis finally warped in a strong force to take down the nearby Void Shard. Using a force of Zealots, Dragoons, Avengers, Sentries, and Reavers. Artanis moved them into the deadly void field and dealt with the menagerie of Void Shadows with the Zealots, Dragoons and Avengers. The Sentries supported the attackers while the Reavers fired Scarab after Scarab at the imposing fragment from the Void.

After using an unbelievable amount of firepower, the Void Shard finally shattered, dispersing the void field and sealing all rifts into the Void in the area.

Artanis quickly moved to secure the area by having an outpost built to aid in warping in more advanced units.

After the latest wave of Void Shadows, Lyra moved against the infested base north of the outpost and used her void-based abilities to drain the life from the infested in the area before launching destructive waves against the infested structures.

Once the infested base was leveled, the Nerazim moved in and established a base, bringing Centurions, Stalkers, Annihilators, Dark Templar, Corsairs, Dark Archons, and Void Rays into the battle. Vorazun and Zeratul warped in to support their Nexus Point while their forces moved against the nearby hive clusters.

Artanis and Vorazun collaborated to attack a Void Shard to the north of Amon’s host body. The task was made more difficult because Amon was channeling more of his power through the remaining shards. The Void Shadows defending the second shard were more numerous than the first and required more firepower to get through.

A lot of Protoss were killed in the attack, but the Daelaam managed to shatter the second Void Shard. Amon was forced to channel more of his power into the remaining three shards.

Lyra moved into the nearby hive cluster to the east of the fallen Void Shard. Once again, she used the power of the Void to single-handedly destroy the Zerg. After disabling all detectors with her Void Stasis, she wiped out the minions and Spine Crawlers with her Storm Charge. When the detectors were freed from stasis, she drained their life to empower her bane blade and slashed through the remainder of the hive cluster.

With the area cleared, Fenix and Talandar warped in with the Purifiers to support the attack on Amon. They brought the power of their Sentinels, Adepts, Energizers, Mirages, Colossi and Tempests.

While Artanis was establishing an outpost where the second shard was shattered, Lyra moved south. Fenix, Zeratul and Tassadar combined their forces and moved against the Void Shard to the south of Amon’s host body.

As Rohana feared, the shards were becoming increasingly unstable and were unleashing powerful waves of void energy. The combined might of the three Protoss factions was just barely enough to push through the massive number of Void Shadows and attack the shard. The overflowing void energy took the lives of many of the Daelaam but was finally shattered in the end.

Artanis established strong defensive positions to the north and south of Amon’s host body.

While the Daelaam held fast against the Void Shadow onslaught, Lyra engaged a corrupted Khalai base. After disabling the Photon Cannons, she tore through the base while using her speed and stealth to sever nerve cords. While the defensive structures remained under Amon’s control, the liberated Protoss attacked the Photon Cannons while Lyra used her psionic and void powers to wipe out the base.

Alarak warped in with the Tal’darim, looking at their leader expectantly. Donning her darker persona, Lyra said, “I have personally cleared this area to use as foothold so that we may exact our wrath upon the False God. Let not the Void stand in our way and slaughter all who follow Amon!”

The might of the Vanguard, Blood Hunters, Havocs, Ascendants, Destroyers and Wrathwalkers began to warp into the area to unleash untold destruction upon Amon’s forces. A Tal’darim Mothership warped in, ready to follow Lyra’s command.

The Nerazim, Khalai and Tal’darim brought together a large force and began pushing against the fourth Void Shard.

While the defenses around the shard were strong, the shard itself was also dangerous. When danger approached it, the Void Shard began arcing energy all around it. The Protoss fired everything they had at the shard to shatter it.

Thankfully, the losses were less than they were with the previous two shards.

When the fourth Void Shard shattered, Amon overcharged the last shard with all the energy it could afford to take without shattering in the process. Amon grew concerned for the safety of his host body.

Lyra and Alarak personally joined in the last attack on the last Void Shard. Fenix, Talandar, Vorazun, Zeratul, Artanis and Tassadar all joined in with their respective factions and pushed against the corrupted Protoss base in one all out attack on the shard.

The base was leveled quickly while everyone joined in on a powerful and vicious attack on Amon’s last Void Shard, not letting any Void Shadows stand in their way. The shard gave as good as it got but was soon overwhelmed by Protoss firepower in the end.

While they were successful in destroying the Void Shards, Amon had fully awakened in his host body and fired a devastating beam of void energy at the Khalai Nexus Point.

Unfortunately for Amon, the loss of the Void Shards had also left his host body completely exposed. With the void energies in the air dissipating, Amon was on his own. Tassadar noticed this and ordered all ships in orbit to target Amon’s host body.

The combined might of the Spear of Adun, Cybros and every Protoss ship orbiting Aiur concentrated their firepower at the single point where Amon was.

Amon could only scream in agony as the storm of Protoss fury rained down upon him and incinerated every trace of his host body.

With his body destroyed, Amon was forced to return to the Khala. While given a major setback, he was not defeated yet.

The Daelaam had to hurry and proceed with phase three because the Golden Armada neared and they needed more time to prepare the Keystone for its final duty.

Legacy: Salvation Part 3

Under the scorching blaze of Protoss weaponry, his body was destroyed. Amon knew that he had suffered a major setback in his plans and would have to start over in creating a new body. However, he came to realize that the Protoss had been too successful in thwarting his plans. Before he could begin to start building a new host body, the Daelaam had to be eliminated.

While the Khala was his only anchor to the material world now, he had to be careful. The Daelaam had the Keystone and he knew that they would use it to pluck him from the Khala. While not even the Keystone could imprison him for long, if the entire Protoss race severed themselves from the Khala, all of his plans made eons ago would be for nothing.

There was only one saving grace left for him, the Golden Armada was near. He would not have his designs come undone by the hands of his own creations and a Pony. It would be up to his minions now to prevent him from making a one way trip to the Void.

The time had come for the final push against Amon and force him back into the Void. Lyra addressed her Tal’darim and made sure that they were prepared to deal a crippling blow to the False God. As they shouted their affirmations of readiness, Lyra took a deep breath and ordered them to be ready to march on the Hierarch’s signal.

Talandar discussed strategy with the Executors of the Purifiers. Once they felt they had a solid plan, they remained on standby until Tassadar gave the order.

The same was discussed among the Nerazim.

Once everyone was ready, Tassadar opened a channel to all Daelaam forces.

“My brethren, hear me! For there is little time left. All that remains of our race, our civilization, are those that stand beside you now, and those corrupted on the surface below. Our kind once stood as stewards of a galaxy full of promise. In our pride and division, we failed that sacred charge and fell to ruin. The Khala, designed to bring unity, ultimately only aided those divisions. Its hope was a lie. Today that lie must come to its end, and with it, our prejudice and arrogance must become a thing of the past. For we now fight in the belief that our kind has not seen its end. That we Protoss can stand bound by a belief in unity. And that we Protoss will forge a great and mighty new civilization! Trust each other in the fight ahead. Strike as one will! Let our last stand burn a memory so bright that we will be known throughout eternity!”

Lyra felt moved by Tassadar’s speech, despite not really having a place in it.

With the Daelaam roused by Tassadar’s speech, everyone prepared for the battle that will earn them their freedom from Amon’s twisted vision of salvation.

The Keystone was in place atop a temple. The artifact was hooked up to a device that would charge it in much the same way as the Terran version.

Vorazun and Zeratul would hold the northern entrance of the temple with their Nerazim.

Karax, Fenix and Talandar would hold the southern entrance to the temple with the Purifiers.

Alarak and Lyra would hold the main entrance to the temple with the Tal’darim.

Tassadar, Artanis, and Aldaris would provide the core defense of the Keystone while providing support for the other factions.

Amon’s Brood surrounded them and the Golden Armada was near. The Hybrid would use any means necessary to shatter the final hope of the Protoss.

0%

Everything was in place for the great battle that would determine the course of the End War. Tassadar made sure that they would have all the resources they needed to survive long enough for the Keystone to reach full power.

The Zerg attacks began from the north. The Nerazim prepared to defend. Lyra teleported to the Nerazim’s defense.

A basic attack of Zerglings and Mutalisks came. The Dark Archons took control of the fliers while Lyra electrocuted the Zerglings with a Storm Charge.

A larger Zerg attack came from the west and assaulted Alarak’s base. Lyra took control of the Ultralisks while using void energy to drain the attackers before firing a blast that took them out.

10%

As expected, Amon’s attacks tested the Purifier’s defenses. A few Psionic Storms from Lyra made quick work of the attack.

A larger attack pushed against the Nerazim but Tassadar was ready to assist Lyra to defend the positions. A force of Avengers and Phoenixes aided in the Nerazim defense.

Ships from the Golden Armada arrived to put pressure on Alarak’s defenses. Amon, using Selendis’ body, accused Tassadar of killing his people by leading them to him. Lyra teleported atop a Tempest and began firing beams of magic at the forces on the ground, starting with the Colossi. She teleported back to the Keystone after firing a void blast into the Tempest’s bridge and sent it crashing into the ground.

20%

Artanis warped in a few Arbiters to provide cloaking for their allies while the Zerg focused on the static defenses, most of the time helpless to the attacks from cloaked Protoss warriors.

The Golden Armada began attacking the Spear of Adun. While it seemed that support from orbit would become limited, something happened…

The Golden Armada came under attack from a fleet composed mainly of Terran Battlecruisers.

“What? Have we truly received aid?” Rohana asked hopefully.

<“Howdy fellas, mind if we cut in on the action?”> said a familiar voice that reinvigorated Lyra. <“We’ll keep these guys company and send down some reinforcements when we can.”>

With that, Raynor’s fleet engaged the Golden Armada to take some pressure off the Spear of Adun.

The Tal’darim was under threat of being overrun by a large torrent of Zerg. Lyra quickly reacted by draining the lesser Zerg and unleashed a torrent of life-fueled void energy at the remainder of the attacking Zerg.

30%

Nerazim Void Rays reacted to another incursion from the Golden Armada and blasted the ships out of the sky. Since the corrupted ships were attacking from two different angles, Lyra personally dealt with the other group.

Another large wave of Zerg was poised to hit the Tal’darim.

Unexpectedly however, a pair of Terran drop pods landed in front of the Tal’darim Nexus Point. A Ghost and a Spectre emerged and painted the area at the entrance for Nuclear Strikes. Once the Zerg arrived, they were wiped out immediately by a pair of Nuclear Missiles.

Lyra teleported to the pair to greet them, “Hi Tosh, glad to see you here with...Nova?!”

“As much as I’d like to kick your girlfriend’s ass for making a fool out of me, I have orders to make sure that artifact does what you need it to do,” Nova said.

“You’re welcome to try, little girl. But I heard that she is beyond you in ability so good luck with that,” Tosh said in amusement.

A large number of Terran mercenaries arrived over the Tal’darim Nexus Point, ready to repel the Zerg.

“You certainly know how to make exotic friends, Lyra. I suppose watching the fodder struggle will give me some amusement,” Alarak said.

40%

Rohana reported that more of the Golden Armada were entering the system and engaging the Dominion fleet. The Terran ships were beginning to struggle against the might of the Armada.

It was then that a few of the Armada ships were disabled when the engines were severely damaged by acid. A massive swarm of flying Banelings engaged the corrupted ships before a large number of Leviathans entered the system.

It wasn’t long before the skies above Aiur was clouded with Mutalisks. Rohana worried that Amon had even more reinforcements that he kept hidden, the dread turned to hope when they heard a voice they hadn’t heard since Ulnar.

<”Looks like we made it in time. Time to give Amon a taste of the fury of the Swarm,”> Kerrigan said.

With Kerrigan’s Zerg bringing reinforcements to the beleaguered fleets, Raynor was able to get some troops and ships to the temple and reinforce the defense.

50%

The attacks on the temple increased in intensity as the entrances were besieged by increasingly frequent waves of Zerg. Lyra was able to handle one side at a time but knew that she needed some help.

Tosh and Nova continued dropping Nukes on Zerg at the main entrance while Artanis’ mobile defense assisted wherever they could.

A number of Zerg sacs began raining on the temple grounds, bringing relief for the defenders. Among the new arrivals were Stukov and DuGalle alongside a number of Infestors. The Infestors dealt with the lesser Zerg with their Fungal Growth ability while Stukov weakened Ultralisks with his Corrosive Bolt. DuGalle called on a number of flying Banelings to rain acidic death on another wave of Amon’s Zerg.

A large force from the Golden Armada moved against the Keystone. Lyra and Aldaris handled the wave by creating a number of illusory copies while Lyra created confusion among the ships and made them attack each other and the illusions. Lyra finished off the rest.

60%

Lyra became elated when she saw a sac drop in the middle of the temple and her marefriend emerged from it. This was followed by the arrival of Dehaka.

“So much essence to claim. My evolution will be guaranteed this day,” Dehaka said.

When there was a brief respite from the onslaught, Sweetie and Lyra embraced each other briefly before returning to the task at hand.

With Sweetie joining the fray, Lyra handled the main entrance while Sweetie kept the north entrance defended. Sweetie set up a hive cluster near the Nerazim Nexus Point and quickly set up production for her Zerglings.

Once her Zerglings grew numerous, Sweetie had them engage the Zerg to the north. Using their own Creep against them, the Zerglings continued to multiply.

Each entrance was fortified by a number of Sweetie’s Scylla while the hive cluster began moving toward producing Mutalisks and eventually Blight Dragons to tear apart any Golden Armada ships that tried to enter the temple grounds.

70%

Large waves of enemy Zerg began attacking from all three entrances simultaneously in an attempt to overwhelm at least one entrance. Sweetie’s Zerg held off one wave with their overwhelming numbers. Lyra used her draining ability on her wave and destroyed the rest with the fury of the Void.

The work of the two Ponies made defending the third position much easier as Tosh and Nova unleashed nukes on their wave while Stukov and DuGalle let loose the infested on the remainder with DuGalle calling in a Baneling Bombardment from above.

When a massive number of Zerg approached Lyra’s position, something unexpected happened.

Two hundred tons of steel and fury dropped into the middle of the enemy group and crushed a good number of them. Lyra quickly moved to rescue the massive Terran war machine, draining the life from the rest of the wave.

“Big dog is back from the dead!” said Tychus from within the Odin.

80%

“I thought I destroyed that thing completely,” Lyra said.

Tychus chuckled, “Didn’t count on your girlfriend stealin’ the schematics from the Valhalla facility, did ya?”

Lyra shrugged and decided to let the convict go wild against the Zerg.

Since the situation in orbit was under control, Kerrigan landed near the temple and obliterated an entire wave of Amon’s Zerg in her wake.

Talandar was concerned about the new arrivals. “Can we trust these Zerg to help us?” he asked.

“Yeah, the one defending the north is my marefriend and the one defending the south is her friend. Besides, we really needed their help to keep the Zerg and Golden Armada at bay,” Lyra responded.

“Hey Lyres, you sure this thing won’t destroy us too? It would suck to protect this thing only for it to kill me and Kerrigan,” Sweetie inquired, referring to the Keystone.

“No need to worry. After extensive research, I have discovered how to utilize its functions properly. There will be no danger to you or Kerrigan once it is ready,” Karax replied.

“That’s a relief. Last thing I need is to be rendered sickly by that thing again,” Kerrigan said.

90%

Amon’s desperation became obvious. Every corrupted Protoss in Amon’s army approached the temple in one last bid to destroy the Keystone.

Sweetie kept the skies contested thanks to the brutal might of her Blight Dragons while she spawned several colossal Ultralisks to provide the final touch to her adamantine defenses.

Thanks to the support from the Dominion and Kerrigan’s Zerg, Artanis was able to warp in a powerful fleet to ensure that no ship would come close to the Keystone.

Zerg and Protoss waves were relentless but their attacks could not make a scratch in the defenses anymore. Nuclear support from Tosh, Nova and the Odin ensured that all attack venues were well covered.

Everyone could tell that Amon began to panic.

100%

“Energy matrix charged. The Keystone is ready, Hierarch!” Karax said.

Everyone pulled back to the Keystone and prepared for the imminent blast.

The warriors fought their hardest around the Keystone. An Amon-possessed Selendis charged at the Keystone but was met with a hoof to her gut and knocked into a pillar.

It was then that the Keystone started sending waves of power, pulling Amon’s consciousness from the corrupted warriors.

Amon screamed as he was pulled into the Keystone.

Tassadar yelled out to all Templar, “Selendis, Templar! Rid yourselves of Amon! Sever your nerve cords!”

“No. We are one in the Khala,” Amon spoke from within the Keystone.

All of the Protoss with nerve cords winced in pain. “Without the Khala, what will we become?” Selendis asked.

“Free,” Tassadar responded. He encouraged her to believe in his vision of the future. Selendis put her faith in that the Protoss’ future would be bright without the Khala and severed her nerve cords. All other Daelaam followed Selendis’ example and did the same.

Amon screamed as the Keystone was unable to hold him any longer. However, without a host to connect his consciousness to the material world, he had nowhere left to go except the Void.

While everyone was celebrating their victory against Amon, Lyra and Sweetie shared a passionate hug and kiss.

When they finally broke the embrace, Lyra asked, “So, is it over? Amon is defeated and cast back into the Void. His servants are gone so he shouldn’t be a threat anymore. Does this mean we can return home?”

Sweetie sighed, “In a way it is over. If I were Princess Celestia or Princess Luna, I would leave this matter at that. But I’m not them. I’m not leaving the matter of dealing with him to some other generation down the line. We still have a couple of years left until Discord takes us back home...at least I hope he does. I’d like to spend that time searching for a way to safely enter the Void and finish him.

Lyra could only wish her luck with that. In the meantime, she had a people to lead.

The two separated once more. Until Sweetie had a lead on how to get into the Void without being torn apart by its energies, Lyra would stay with the Protoss and help them rebuild their once glorious civilization.

Author's Note

Hope you enjoyed the changes I made to this mission. :twilightsmile:

We are near the end of the story. There are only 7 more chapters remaining before the end.

Interlude: The Calm Before the Storm

One week before Sweetie’s and Lyra’s departure from Equestria…

Princess Celestia, benevolent ruler of Equestria and mover of Equus’ sun, had just finished Day Court for the day and retreated to her chambers.

Just like most days, she had to put up with a number of outrageous requests from the nobility to have lavish additions made to their mansions that create suffering for the lower class. It took a lot of willpower to stop her from casting aside all formalities and simply scream her denial of their requests in their faces.

It was nearly time to lower the sun when she heard a knock from her chamber door. “Enter,” Celestia said.

The door opened to reveal her sister with a look of concern on her face. Celestia approached her sister while brushing her ethereal mane. “What is the matter, Lulu?” she asked.

Luna gave a deep sigh before she spoke, “I am deeply concerned for the well being of one of our subjects, sister. I have peered into her dreams for quite some time and found that she is being haunted by a recurring nightmare. Each time she has this dream, your nephew is at the center of it. I can sense her deep-seated hatred toward this stallion.”

Celestia’s ears drooped and her head lowered in sadness. “It has been years since that tragic incident. And yet, the only survivor of the ill-fated organization is now shackled to her past because she could not receive the justice she deserved. My nephew has covered his tracks too well and has left no evidence that we could use to connect his involvement to the incident. It pains me to look at a family member as a criminal, even worse to do so without being able to do anything about it.”

“I fear for young Sweetie Drops’ fate if these nightmares continue. She may ultimately end up doing something drastic that will end up getting her killed or force us to arrest her.”

“You have been watching her dreams, Lulu. Can you not do anything to ease them?”

“Alas, I cannot. Nightmares such as hers would require either a confrontation with the subject of the dream, Blueblood, or a far less reliable method of rewriting her memories of her years as a member of S.M.I.L.E.”

Celestia knew that the latter option was not an option because there were too many ways the method could backfire and end up with Sweetie going after them instead. There was little they could do for Sweetie’s dilemma and would have to wait until the situation developed.

The Royal Sisters decided to change topics to something more important. Celestia cast her wards all around her room to prevent any eavesdroppers from listening in.

Luna began, “Tell me sister, how are your latest attempts at creating Xel’naga? I pray Cadance and Twilight are acclimating well to their forms?”

“They appear to be getting used to being Alicorns, but I have said that with our previous students as well. I intend to take my time in nurturing them; let them live a normal lifetime’s worth of memories. Hopefully, some good memories with friends and family will reduce the likelihood of them becoming Fallen Ones.”

“I pray that you are right, sister. It pains me to see each one of our students reject the cosmic duties of the Xel’naga. Thanks to Amon, we must create even more Xel’naga to fulfill those duties and our failures are not making this easy.” Luna sighed, “I suppose that tis a good thing that we figured a method of giving some of our essence without the need to forfeit our lives in the process a long time ago. It still requires a Pony’s lifetime for our essence to regenerate through this method though.”

Celestia gave a small smile, “Perhaps it’s for the best. We still need to find a potential candidate who not only possesses the will and power to become a Xel’naga but is also capable of bringing great change to our society. And no offense to you, Cadance or Twilight, but I don’t think any of us possess the means of ushering in a golden age of technology, not without leaving Equus to explore the stars. Discord is the only Xel’naga who is free to go where he wishes without consequence to society but society itself finds him completely untrustworthy.”

“Alas, even after a thousand years of banishment, Equus has changed so little. Part of me would have welcomed a case of culture shock upon my return. Sadly, we are still nowhere near the age of space travel.”

“Then perhaps you should come to me for advice every now and then. You might just discover something you’ve missed,” said a voice that instantly gave the Royal Sisters a migraine from the annoyance.

Discord instantly appeared in Celestia’s chambers. Celestia and Luna gave the Draconequus a deadpan stare. “What is it, Discord?” Celestia asked with a sigh. “If you have something meaningful to add to the conversation, then let’s hear it. Please, please, please be something useful,” she added in her thoughts.

Discord smirked, “Of course I have something meaningful to add. I always have something useful to say. Never once had my words not had any meaning. It’s not my fault that you Ponies fail to look between the lines of my supposed nonsense.” Celestia and Luna intensified their stares. “Fine, since you two have no idea what you’re doing most of the time when it comes to Xel’naga experiments. Perhaps you could let me borrow one of your subjects in an experiment of my own.”

“You know that we would never allow that, Discord. Our tests alone endanger the lives of our candidates. I don’t even want to imagine the hardships you would put them through.”

Discord burst into laughter. When he calmed down after a full minute, he spoke, “You call finding an old relic in a crystal castle while a mad unicorn tried to take over the city and one of your other students helping her with a barrier a test? Puh-lease. If you want something big, you have to increase the risk. Put them through a situation where the risk of death is high and there is no safety net.

“I will commend miss Sparkle for completing that test. She did demonstrate a willingness to do what was necessary for the test as well as her creativity when she turned a long trek up some stairs trivial by inverting her gravity. Her mind I do not question, but her combat ability was not tested...at least until Tirek. By my books she failed that test miserably. She had the power of four Xel’naga coursing through her and she still failed to defeat him without help from her friends.

“I have seen distant worlds in my free time, Celestia. Many of them possess threats that make what you have seen on this world look like playground bullies. The magic of friendship won’t solve every problem in the universe.”

Celestia and Luna looked at each other and contemplated what Discord had said. They had to admit that he had a point. Neither Twilight nor Cadance had ever been tested in combat unlike themselves who participated in their share of battles in the past. Since they didn’t have any better ideas on how to bring about the golden age that Ponykind needed to travel to the stars, they decided to give the Draconequus a chance. Celestia turned to him, “Whom do you intend for your candidate?”

“There is one Pony in particular that I have been keeping my eye on. I believe that she has the drive necessary to endure all hardships she will be subjected to during the course of my test. She has the necessary indomitable will and is quite driven toward her goal. My test will determine her adaptability and her combat prowess as well as her determination. She is lacking in the power department but that can easily be rectified.”

“Who is this Pony you have chosen?” Luna asked.

“I’m afraid I’m no longer in an expository mood. You will have to wait and see,” Discord responded.

“When do you plan to have your candidate take your test, if I may ask?” Celestia inquired.

Discord removed his mouth and stuck it into a zipper bag which he put in a safe. The safe disappeared.

Celestia and Luna realized that they were not going to get any more info out of him. All they could do now was hope that Discord’s experiment would produce the results they needed.

Eight years had passed since Discord’s experiment began which translated into two weeks Equus time. A few things had happened between when Amon was cast back into the Void and now.

James Raynor was gaining fame as a prominent commander of Valerian’s Dominion. He led his forces to victory over several insurgent factions that were either hardliners for the old regime or they wanted to gain their own fame. Whenever he had time off, he would spend them with Kerrigan. It took a few months to get used to her Zerg form, but their love grew over time.

Matt Horner, admiral of the Dominion, had been gaining fame in equal measures. After a lot of encouragement from Raynor and Sweetie, he finally went on a date with Mira Han. The first date was all but a disaster as her crazy behavior had put him on edge. However, he soon got used to her hijinks and the second date went more smoothly. While Mira was joking about the relationship at first, both decided to give the other a chance. They have been in a relationship for three months.

Tychus Findlay got arrested several times on several counts of drunken disorderly conduct and a couple of counts of indecent exposure. He is slowly gaining infamy as a public nuisance.

Rory Swann had been taking occasional engineering jobs between missions. One day, Sweetie approached him with a request for his services in the betterment of her people. When the time came, she would have him come with her to teach a whole new generation of Equestrian engineers that they would learn from his mechanical expertise. He accepted on the condition that he be returned to Korhal when he was done since he wasn’t willing to make a lifetime commitment.

Egon Stetmann was found on Bel’shir with an army of mechanical Zerg at his beck and call. Apparently, he had been inhaling a lot of Terrazine since he was last seen. When Sweetie found him, she forcefully gave him some Jorium supplements to return his sanity. Like with Swann, he was also given an offer to provide his scientific knowledge to Equestrian society. He accepted while, for some reason, he wanted to be more like his creations. The two reached a compromise on that matter and she agreed to turn him into a Changeling. He accepted the offer. After that, Sweetie gave Stetmann more Jorium supplements to make sure he wasn’t high on Terrazine anymore.

Gabriel Tosh and Nova Terra were assigned to be partners in numerous covert ops missions and sometimes found mercenary work thanks to Han’s connections. At some point, Tosh blindsided Nova and had her exposed to the Jorium and Terrazine mixture to make her into a Spectre. Although Nova was pissed about what Tosh had done, she also began remembering things that were previously erased by the mind wipes, including the romantic moments she had with him. In the end, she decided to simply start over with the Spectre leader.

The Daelaam leaders spent the next couple of years rebuilding their civilization. Without the Khala, the Khalai had to adjust to living with uncertainty in their thoughts. This was eased by the guidance of the Nerazim. They also had to get used to the Purifiers and Tal’darim walking the open streets. A lot of tension built between the factions but Hierarch Tassadar was able to act with fairness and became respected among the factions...to a lesser extent in the case of the Tal’darim.

When Tassadar asked Lyra what her home planet was like, her description led some eavesdropping Protoss to call Celestia the Princess of Food as a joke. Tassadar was intrigued by Lyra’s homeworld and asked if it would be possible to build a small colony on Equus. Lyra said that he would have to take it up with the ‘Princess of Food.’

Zagara continued to learn from the examples set by Sweetie and Kerrigan. She had a feeling that the day that she would rule the Swarm was near. Even if she knew that she would never rule Sweetie’s Brood, she could live with that. She tittered excitedly at the thought of having the Swarm to herself.

Dehaka returned to Zerus with his pack and began a war to gain domination over all other pack leaders.

Izsha continued to serve her Queens with no goal of her own to think about. She focused all of her energy in being a servant.

Abathur worked tirelessly to find a way for the Swarm to compete with Sweetie’s Brood. So far he has had no luck and often became frustrated.

Alexei Stukov and Gerard DuGalle decided that once the Swarm changed hands to Zagara, which they knew was inevitable, they would follow Sweetie to Equus. In preparation for this, the two agreed to undergo the Changeling procedure so that they wouldn’t have to walk around scaring the innocent Ponies with their grotesque appearance.

Sarah Kerrigan stared out into the vastness of space, wondering what the future will bring. Sweetie had informed her of her intent on finding a way into the Void to finish off Amon.

Whenever Jim had time off from his work, he and Kerrigan would meet in secret and tell each other how their days had been with some romantic wordplay mixed in.

Suddenly, Kerrigan received a telepathic message from a powerful, yet benevolent voice. It was calling her to Ulnar. She had a feeling that this was the moment that Sweetie had been waiting for. She began using her Zerg as receivers and transmitters to transmit a message to Tassadar and Raynor, telling them to come to Ulnar.

Author's Note

Hopefully someone got a few laughs from reading this chapter since this will be my last attempt at being funny for the rest of the story. The epilogue missions are up next.

Battle of the Void Part 1: Duran's Last Stand

Two years had passed since the battle to reclaim Aiur from Amon ‘s forces. Kerrigan had helped clean up the remaining feral Zerg by creating a Broodmother that was given the purpose of taking control of as many feral Zerg as she could. She would then take that brood and wipe out the remaining feral Zerg on Aiur. The Protoss were thankful for Kerrigan’s efforts while their civilization was being rebuilt.

Alarak had continued to say that the alliance between the Daelaam and the Tal’darim was tenuous. The only reason the alliance persisted as it did was because he knew Sweetie was looking for a way to enter Amon’s realm and finish the False God.

Meanwhile, Lyra had slowly reshaped the beliefs and structure of some of the Tal’darim. Her popularity on the battlefield and in her Rak’Shir duels had earned her a number of fans who were receptive to her combat philosophy. Normally a belief that deviates from the Tal’darim norm would have been seen as a sign of weakness and had the Blood Hunters after them, but they were free to say what they wanted under the reign of Highlord Lyra.

The Protoss were sad to know that their friend that they spent eight exciting years getting to know would be returning home to Equus within the year, according to her. Lyra informed Tassadar that she would see if she could get Princess Celestia to agree to allow the Protoss to establish a colony on Equus. She would make sure to run it by Bon Bon first because it’s her plan to spur technological development by introducing advanced education to Equestria.

Tassadar found Lyra honing her skills by sparring with warriors of different factions. Each warrior came at her with their own styles and Lyra adapted herself to deal with each one. The Hierarch approached the Highlord, “Glad to see you not letting your skills go to rust, Lyra.” He received a smile for his comment. He suddenly took on a serious tone, “We just received a transmission from Kerrigan. She appears to be sending the same message to James Raynor. She wants us to meet her at Ulnar. She claims that she heard a mysterious voice calling out to her.”

Zeratul appeared from the shadows. “It could be the same voice I heard on Atrias that told me that the Keystone would guide us unto hope. If this truly is the same being that aided us in our most dire hour, this warrants investigation.”

Tassadar had Zeratul gather his advisors to hear their views on the matter. Vorazun and Rohana were unsure whether the voice was trustworthy but decided that they should investigate while maintaining the utmost caution. Talandar and Fenix decided on going to Ulnar hoping to find glorious battle there. Alarak wanted to go because if Kerrigan had found a way into the Void, this would be his chance to watch Amon draw his last breath.

A fleet of Dominion Battlecruisers along with the Spear of Adun escorted by the Golden Armada held position near the Alterian Rift where Ulnar was. They didn’t have to wait long before a number of Kerrigan’s Leviathans appeared.

Selendis was impatiently waiting for Kerrigan and Sweetie to make their appearance in the Spear of Adun’s war council chamber. Artanis, Raynor and Lyra were in attendance.

While Selendis was complaining about the wait, Lyra tried to reassure her, “If this is about what I think it’s about, we are about to engage in a battle that will go down in history as one that will determine the fate of our universe.”

“I hope that you’re not exaggerating,” Selendis said.

Kerrigan and Sweetie entered the war council a few seconds later. Kerrigan commented about Selendis’ lack of faith.

Raynor spoke first, “So what’s going on, Sarah? Lyra’s suspecting something big is about to go down. Is she right?”

“Yes, Jim. We’re going after Amon. It’s time to bring an end to this war,” Sweetie said.

“Even now, I hear a voice calling out to me. I can tell it’s not Amon’s. It’s tormented and desperate, but it’s benevolent. Amon may not return for millennia...but he will return. That’s why Sweetie and I have agreed to use the gateway within Ulnar and destroy the Fallen One within his own realm,” Kerrigan said.

“We will need everyone’s assistance for this. Despite how powerful Lyra and I have become, we are still going against an ancient being of immeasurable power. If we fail here, some generations further down the line will suffer for our failure.”

After a brief pause, Raynor spoke up, “They’re right...We can’t kick this can down the road. This burden is ours, like it or not.

Lyra and Sweetie were suddenly grabbed and pulled through a rift. When they landed in their new location, they were greeted by a familiar, yet obnoxious presence.

Sweetie sighed and stared at the Draconequus, “What do you want now, Discord?”

“I believe your time in the Koprulu sector is coming to an end. Have you said your goodbyes yet?”

Sweetie shook her head. “Not yet...There’s still one last thing I need to do before we go back home.”

For the first time ever, Sweetie and Lyra were surprised to see Discord’s jaw drop to the floor, literally, and his eyes go so wide they popped out of his head, literally. When he regained his composure, he nearly shouted, “You can’t be serious! This test has ended. You passed with flying colors! Yet you decide to go for extra credit?!”

Discord regained control of his voice before he continued. “You have no idea what you two are getting into. Sure, my test did have you facing off against Amon, but you only needed to make sure he was sent back to the Void. It’s another matter to face him directly. He is more powerful than myself, Celestia and Luna combined. Even if you ascended to become a Xel’naga, your chances against him would be slim.”

“I don’t care, Discord. We will find a way to make sure he never terrorizes this Universe again. If we don’t deal with him at some point, our descendants will have to take the burden,” Sweetie countered.

Discord growled and clenched his fists and ground his teeth. “Fine! Do what you want.” With a snap, Sweetie and Lyra were returned to the war council.

The three fleets observed Ulnar separating into numerous pieces. A rift began to open between them. When the rift stabilized, everyone stared into a dark and twisted space with shades of red, blue and black before them.

Braving the perils ahead of them, the fleets set their course into the rift.

Things were already turning chaotic. The fleets came under attack from the Void Shadows that were slowly tearing the ships apart. Kerrigan reported that the voice was nearby while Tassadar offered to let his forces investigate.

Tassadar deployed a pair of Warp Prisms to a lifeless landmass floating in the Void. Once the transport ships arrived, they deployed a force of Sentinels, Stalkers and Annihilators. The Void Shadows tore at the ships and soon destroyed them, leaving the troops behind to endure the searing energies. The Protoss moved inland, dispersing any shadowy forms that they came across.

A structure ahead of them appeared to be generating a rift from which Amon’s minions were entering. The Protoss quickly destroyed the structure. They noticed a pair of structures that were similar to the one they just destroyed.

Suddenly, everyone heard the benevolent voice call to them to purge the corruption. Acting on that command, the Protoss engaged the rift generator and a shard that appeared to be generating the corrupting shadows that were consuming them.

When the structure around the shard was destroyed, the corrupted gem within began emitting a bright light that drove away the Void Shadows.

While the three factions built their bases, the voice called out once again, “I called to you in dire need. Now you have come to this realm. Here, I am prisoner. You must free me from his grasp.”

“Whose grasp?” Sweetie asked.

“Ah, if it isn’t the wretched beast that cast me here,” said a voice that neither Lyra nor Sweetie were surprised to hear from since they expected to find him in the Void.

Those who could see in the distance could tell where Narud was and what he looked like. He was in his true form. His enormous body was colored in a combination of crimson and black. He personally guarded the prison that held the source of the benevolent voice.

“Ah, Narud...Just the guy we were looking for. I had hoped to end you first before we found Amon. Looks like everything is going according to schedule,” Sweetie said with a condescending tone.

“You dare belittle one of my power?! I will show you what I’m truly capable of.”

Narud summoned a Void Thrasher and sent it against Raynor’s base. Sweetie and Lyra teamed up to tear the void beast apart: Sweetie burning it with a Corrosive Breath and Lyra by slicing the creature apart piece by piece.

The three factions took the time between Void Thrasher attacks to push against Narud’s forces. As they went, they destroyed a few Rift Generators and corrupted shards which drove more of the shadows away.

Narud sent another Void Thrasher toward the three factions again. This time it headed for Kerrigan’s hive cluster. Artanis was ready for it this time since he had a Pylon installed in Raynor’s and Kerrigans bases. He warped in a number of Annihilators to protect the hive cluster. The weapons on the Nerazim robotic assault caused major damage to the Void Thrasher and the Zerg were able to quickly finish it.

Lyra and the Protoss moved north to clear out more rifts and corruption. One area that held a shard that was purified allowed Horner to move a staging base in to fortify their attack on Narud.

While Narud kept sending Void Thrashers against Raynor and Kerrigan, ignoring the Protoss for some reason, Artanis fortified the allied defenses with Annihilators who made sure the void creatures were hardly a threat, allowing Sweetie and Lyra to focus on offense.

Sweetie gradually spread the Creep all over the landmass as she went while using her multiplying Zerglings to quickly tear into the grounded Shadows. Flying Banelings handled the flying shadows.

After securing two designated staging areas on the western side of the landmass, Lyra used a series of teleports to reach the Zerg hive cluster.

After Artanis warped in more reinforcements for Lyra, she cooperated with the Zerg and pushed north to secure more locations for the Swarm to set up.

With the allied forces holding the momentum, they quickly dispersed the Void Corruption and cut Narud off from his shadowy forces.

Narud was soon alone against three armies that wanted him dead. He fought with everything he was capable of, using the Void to his will. However, it was not enough and he found himself surrounded by his enemies. He was soon brought to a critical state by the allied forces.

DuGalle and Stukov were the ones who approached the doomed Xel’naga. “Hello, Duran. Do you remember what you did to us?” Stukov said with a hint of giddiness in his tone.

“Stukov...You have come to gloat, haven’t you.” Narud replied.

“No, I’ve come to say goodnight, you son of a bitch.”

“If there is one thing that I will never tolerate, it is a traitor, especially one who betrays my trust.” DuGalle added. “You’re about to find out what I do to traitors and those who come in between the friendship of Alexei and I.”

“I would say that I take no pleasure in this, but I would be lying,” Stukov finished.

The two simultaneously fired a Corrosive Bolt that tore the Xel’naga apart from the inside out. Duran screamed and writhed as his existence faded away into nothingness.

Suddenly, a colossal being manifested itself before everyone. It possessed numerous eyes and tendrils and resembled the thing Lyra saw during her first exposure to Terrazine but in a positive light, which made the Pony Templar think that the horrifying figure she saw while in that state was Amon. The being spoke with the same benevolent voice that they had been hearing. “Sweetie Drops, Lyra Heartstrings, it fills me with joy to know that the chosen of Celestia and Luna could be here to guide the one chosen to continue the Infinite Cycle to me. I am Ouros, the last shepherd and Enemy of Amon.”

“Actually, if you want to thank anyone for me being here, thank Discord. He was the one who gave me the chance to become what I am now,” Sweetie said.

Ouros paused for a moment then said, “I am glad that young Discord has finally come to understand the importance of the Cycle. Part of me was concerned that he would fall like Amon did. But now, on to more important things.

“The Cycle must not be broken. The merging of Purity of Essence and Purity of Form must continue. While both of you, Kerrigan and Sweetie Drops, meet the requirements to ascend, I cannot merge my essence with both of you. Your ascension, Sweetie Drops, must come from either Discord, Celestia or Luna. I am also overjoyed that they have learned to ascend others without sacrificing themselves. You Ponies shall be the future of the Infinite Cycle.”

Sweetie sighed and for the first time in years, she felt hesitant in her course for power. “I know I need this power to face Amon. I don’t know if they will come to help me with this, but even if I do ascend, what about Lyra. I already know what the role of the Xel’naga is, but eternity would be so lonely if I have to spend it without her.”

Ouros studied Sweetie for a moment, then Lyra. He imagined multiple scenarios in an instant and saw countless unfortunate outcomes. He soon saw one outcome where the future looked bright for the young Xel’naga candidate.

“It is possible for you to bind her life to yours. I shall show you before I begin the transfer. This process will put your life at risk for the rest of your existence for the two of you will grow, thrive and die together if you choose this course.

“For now, we must defeat the Fallen One.” Ouros looked at Kerrigan. “You, the one called Kerrigan can merge with my essence. Now, fulfill your destiny. Ascend as Xel’naga. Continue the Infinite Cycle. Only a Xel’naga can defeat the Fallen One.”

Raynor didn’t like the thought of losing the woman he loved to some great cosmic destiny, but he also didn’t like the thought of entrusting Amon’s defeat to future generations. As much as he was against it, he had to make a hard choice. For the sake of the future, he would have to watch his beloved become a goddess and shed her mortality.

Author's Note

Goodnight, Samir Duran/Emil Narud.

Next chapter: The event many of you readers knew was coming involving Discord's protege.

Battle of the Void Part 2: Destinies Fulfilled

Back in Equestria…

Discord was moping around in Fluttershy’s house. While his host had noticed his unusual behavior, she said nothing and hoped that he would tell her at some point.

Discord was more concerned that his experiment was in danger of failure because she had decided to be suicidal and face off against Amon in the Void. He saw little to no chance of her emerging victorious in a direct fight against the Dark God.

Discord and Fluttershy sat at the young animal caretaker’s table in her cottage, silently enjoying the tea Discord provided...or at least he tried to.

Fluttershy picked up on the Lord of Chaos’ distress, “Discord, what’s wrong?”

Discord’s attention became focused on Fluttershy. While he wanted to tell her, the secrets that he shared with the Royal Sisters was made in agreement that no other Pony must know the truth unless it becomes necessary for them to be tied to it. “Nothing’s the matter, Fluttershy. Just thinking about things,” he said.

Fluttershy tilted her head, “Like what?”

“I can’t tell you I’m afraid. The matter is a royal secret.”

“Well...Can you tell me in a way that doesn’t give away anything important? I’d like to help if I could...If that’s alright with you that is.”

Discord let out a deep sigh. “What if I told you that I acquired a student lately?”

Fluttershy’s ears perked. She leaned slightly over the table. “You have a student, Discord? That’s wonderful! Can you tell me who it is?”

He shook his head, “That’s confidential. But I would like to ask you a question.”

“What is it?”

“I have been testing my student through dangerous tasks that I believed they could handle. Just as I hoped, they passed every test necessary to be worthy of being my student. But now, they intend to go above and beyond my expectations and engage in a task where the chance of success, let alone survival, is quite low. I tried to talk them out of it but they were determined to see the task through.”

Fluttershy gasped, then gave a determined look to him. “You must help them. If you think they will need it, then give them all the help they’ll need.”

Discord sighed again before he began talking to himself which manifested as a version of himself wearing a brown jacket, a pair of half-moon glasses, and holding a pipe that blew bubbles. Discord asked the manifestation, “What have I gotten myself into? I already know that I need to help her. I suppose the only thing that’s stopping me from getting the help she needs is my own pride. If I help her, I have to swallow my pride. If I don’t, my experiment ultimately fails, two ponies die, and I’ll never hear the end of it from Celestia and Luna.”

The image rolled his eyes at his actual self, “You already know what you have to do. You and I both know that you hate to lose and if you want to win, you have to do the right thing.”

Discord groaned, “Why does the right thing have to be so painful?”

With a snap of his talons, Discord disappeared along with his doppelganger. Fluttershy smiled as she returned to her tea in solitude until Angel came to her with one of his demands.

The time had come for Kerrigan’s essence transfer to begin. Once the process began, Ouros would not be able to halt it no matter what. It would be up to the allied factions to protect the Queen of Blades until the process was completed.

“Amon’s shadows will devour all. Kerrigan, may the last of my essence give you the power you need,” Ouros said.

Kerrigan nearly felt overwhelmed by the power that was being given to her.

A number of Void Thrashers emerged from rifts and attacked Kerrigan. She used the power she was being given to annihilate the Thrashers. Sweetie and Lyra assisted as best as they could but Amon had summoned many more to overwhelm the defenders. The Ponies became concerned that Kerrigan could be killed with the sheer number of Void Thrashers that Amon was summoning.

Just when Sweetie was beginning to think the fight was a lost cause, the Thrashers suddenly disappeared into thin air. Kerrigan and the Ponies looked around to find out what happened as had Raynor and Tassadar from their ships.

Everyone was surprised to find a creature that looked like an amalgamation of different animals next to a pair of tall, gorgeous Ponies. One was dark blue with a flowing midnight blue mane and tail equipped with a shield and a large broadsword where the blade was enchanted to appear like the night sky. She was clad in an enchanted suit of midnight blue armor. The other was taller than the first and had an alabaster coat with a mane and tail that resembled an aurora. She was equipped with a golden halberd and clad in a golden suit of armor.

The Protoss only had to look at the white Pony to feel like they just had a full meal of sunlight.

Sweetie and Lyra stared at the trio in surprise. Sweetie was the first to speak, “Princess Celestia? Princess Luna? What are you doing here?”

Celestia gave a gentle smile. “Discord has been keeping us informed of your progress through your ordeal. You have performed admirably during your stay in this sector. You have surpassed all expectations that Discord had placed upon you. After Discord’s first report, Luna and I decided to allow you to continue your test to the end.”

“As for you, Lyra, you have proven thyself to be an accomplished warrior,” Luna continued, smiling. “You have spearheaded the Protoss to countless victories. You have even set yourself apart from your peers through your mastery of Magic, Psionic and Void powers. You are among the greatest representations of Purity of Form.”

Raynor walked up to the group with an expression that showed urgency. “Uhh...nice to see you and all, but we have an infinite army of Void Shadows to hold at bay ‘till Sarah’s ascension is done.”

“Oh! Yes, we need to focus on that.” Celestia said. “First though, it’s time to complete your ascension, Sweetie Drops. You were right, this may be the best chance we’re going to get to eliminate the threat of Amon. We wish to join you in the battle to come. Together, the six of us may stand a chance against Amon.”

Sweetie gave a big smile. “Thanks. Truth be told, I was really hoping you all would come to help us with this.”

Celestia returned the smile, “We would be honored to help you vanquish the Fallen One.”

“Yes, yes, happiness and smiles all around,” Discord said indifferently. “Can we get on with it? As chaotic as this realm is, the style creeps me out. Let’s hurry and begin your ascension already.”

“I will guard the pass into the Terran base,” Celestia said. “Luna can guard the hive cluster while Lyra can handle the Protoss’ defense.”

Raynor, Zagara and Artanis had their bases set up as Celestia, Luna and Lyra respectively teleported to them. Discord began channeling some of his essence to Sweetie.

While the allied factions were setting up their defenses, Amon’s Shadows had arrived. “I can sense the children here. You have made my hunt so much easier. Today and ever forward, I will be the only Xel’naga,” Amon said.

0%

A wave of Shadows pushed toward Raynor’s base. Celestia simply slashed them away with her halberd.

Celestia’s Defense gave Raynor plenty of time to prepare his. He prepared several Bunkers and filled them with Marines and Marauders. The positions were further fortified with Siege Tanks and Missile Turrets.

10%

So far, the attacks were hardly anything for Celestia to consider using much of her power against.

Amon continued probing the defenses by sending Shadows against Zagara’s hive cluster.

Seeing a chance to get in on the action, Luna charged forward against the wave of Shadows. Using her strength and speed, she quickly mowed down the offending Shadows with her broadsword.

Attacks came against Artanis’ base, but Lyra was ready. She electrocuted the smaller shadows with her Storm Charge while using her speed and blades to slash through the larger ones. She used magical blasts from her horn to shoot down flying Shadows.

20%

Amon began sending more Void Thrashers to disrupt the ritual. Since one appeared near Celestia’s position, she dealt with it by firing a powerful Solar Beam at it to incinerate the creature.

The Shadows attacked Raynor’s base from two different entrances. Celestia quickly teleported to the other side and dispersed the wave with her halberd.

30%

A massive onslaught of Shadows approached the hive cluster. Luna, however, was only feeling more excited as she bravely charged at the wave alone. She destroyed a large number of the attackers with a blast from her horn. She then took flight and demolished the flyers with another sweeping wave from her horn.

Raynor began fortifying Protoss and Zerg fortifications by building Bunkers, Siege Tanks and Missile Turrets near the Protoss line while calling on the mercenaries who were on loan from Mira Han to defend the hive cluster.

40%

Lyra’s position came under threat from an overwhelming force of Shadows. The Pony Templar decided to experiment with her abilities by combining her magics with void energies and creating her own army of Void Shadows using the void energies around her.

She charged against Amon’s forces with her army and while the attacks were evenly matched, Lyra tipped the scales in her favor by unleashing a series of Psionic Storms upon her enemies.

When the battle was won, Lyra dispersed her shadows since they took some effort to maintain.

Next was Celestia’s turn to deal with a massive force. She weakened the attack by unleashing her own variation of the Solar Lance by firing numerous beams of solar energy at the attackers. Her halberd cut down any flyers.

Celestia and Luna each had to deal with a Void Thrasher that simultaneously appeared. Each one was blasted down by their horns.

50%

Sweetie and Kerrigan were halfway done with their rituals. If Amon sensed that, he made it known by increasing his efforts and unleashing more Shadows.

Large groups pushed against Artanis’ Nexus Point and Zagara’s hive cluster. Luna began unleashing illusions that were made to face the phantasmal Shadows of the Void while Lyra made more Void Shadows to combat the ones that were coming.

Lyra and Luna each had to contend with a Void Thrasher. Lyra dealt with hers by drawing in the void energies around her and unleashing them in one powerful blast that obliterated the Thrasher.

60%

Amon’s attacks continued to intensify. He sent large waves against all three bases at the same time. Thankfully, Lyra and the Royal Sisters were not feeling fatigued yet, but were showing signs that they would soon. Each wave was dealt with in their own way.

By this point, Raynor had an aerial force of Battlecruisers, Vikings and Banshees ready as a mobile defense. Artanis had a fleet of Carriers, Void Rays and Phoenixes and Zagara had Vipers and Mutalisks. Zagara’s Brood was reinforced by Sweetie’s Blight Dragons.

70%

Three Void Thrashers appeared on each side and each one was taken down by one of the defending Ponies.

85%

Amon began to grow impatient with the Shadows failing time and again to prevent Kerrigan and Sweetie from ascending. He began sending continuous waves of Shadows on all sides in an attempt to wear down the defenses.

Celestia, Luna and Lyra soon found themselves in a gauntlet type of scenario where they faced off against Void Shadows that kept coming. The ships and flyers from the allied forces moved in to assist the Ponies.

Void Thrashers appeared from every entrance to stop Kerrigan and Sweetie. Celestia, Luna and Lyra each defeated one thrasher while Kerrigan paused the transfer to deal with the fourth.

The Void Shadows were unable to get through the defenses of two Alicorns, a Pony Templar and the allied forces.

100%

Kerrigan created a burst of power that blew away the Void Shadows. With her final act as a mortal, she gave the Swarm to Zagara, with the exception of Sweetie’s Brood of course.

Ouros gave the last of his essence to Kerrigan. “With the last of our essence, a new eternity dawns. The Infinite Cycles have come to their end.” he said with the last exertion of his will before closing his eyes for the last time.

Kerrigan’s body transformed, she now glowed with a searing light. Her hair became like flames. Her wings burned of eternal fire.

She peered deeper into the Void and sensed where Amon was. She flew off at speeds that would make Rainbow Dash envious.

At the same time, Discord had finished his ritual and wiped his forehead while extra hands patted him on the back. “Whew, I think that’ll do it.”

In that moment, Sweetie disappeared.

Author's Note

Since the story is reaching its climax, the Xel'naga have come out to play. WIll Kerrigan and the Equestrians be able to defeat Amon? Find out in the next chapter when we conclude Sweetie's and Lyra's battles in the Koprulu Sector.

Battle of the Void Part 3: The End of the End War

“Uhh...was that supposed to happen?” Raynor asked.

After Discord had given part of his essence to Sweetie to catalyze the ascension process, she instantly vanished into thin air. The Terrans, Zerg and Protoss were all concerned about what happened to their friend, Lyra included since she didn’t know how the ascension process worked.

Celestia and Luna appeared before the leaders before Discord explained, “Yes that was supposed to happen. It’s some Pony thing where they temporarily disappear into some Astral Realm where they witness their own past memories before coming back with wings and a horn.”

“Didn’t Sweetie already have wings and a horn?” Zagara asked.

“If only becoming a Xel’naga were as simple as genetic modifications in a Spawning Pool,” Discord said with dramatic effect. “But no, the essence of another Xel’naga is needed to ascend someone who bears Purity of Form and Essence like your former Queen.” He narrows his eyes at Zagara. “And you can tell that pronoun-hating geneticist of yours that if he ever tries to experiment with Xel’naga essence, he can expect an unpleasant visit from me,” he threatened, directed at Abathur.

Zagara sensed the weight of Discord’s threat and gulped. “I will be sure he knows.” Discord’s expression returned to normal.

During the conversation, Celestia had teleported away. Luna assured everyone that she was merely going to the Astral Realm to guide Sweetie back.

A few minutes later, Celestia returned with Sweetie who appeared different from before. While her leathery wings were replaced with large, feathery ones, her chitinous horn was replaced by a long, natural horn. Her chitinous armor was, strangely enough, replaced by what appeared to be a black dress suit.

Lyra was confused for a moment then rolled her eyes and walked up to Sweetie. “Really Bonnie? Your agency suit?”

“Hey! This is my favorite look. Besides, it’s a lot better than what they had at the agency,” Sweetie replied.

“You cast away all of your armor for that piece of Terran wear?” Zagara asked.

“You have no idea what this suit is made of. Its composed of a polymer of bio-steel and chitin fibers along with other highly durable organics. It can not only protect me from most attacks but can repair itself in the event that it does rip. I still possess the enhanced regeneration inherent in Zerg and I can do a lot more.” Sweetie shook some loose feathers from her wings. The feathers disappeared into the ground. A moment later, numerous tendrils burst from the ground and wrapped themselves around Zagara, binding her. She was released a few seconds later.

Sweetie adjusted her tie before she had everyone quickly board their ships. The Ponies boarded the Hyperion and everyone was on their way to catch up with Kerrigan.

Kerrigan’s explosive arrival on the landmass near Amon had dispersed all shadows on the platform for the time being. She took the time to scout the area and found that Amon had protected himself with a barrier that was being maintained by a number of Void Crystals.

Everyone soon arrived on the landmass and began setting up their bases. Kerrigan saw Sweetie emerge from her ship and brought a Drone to start her own hive cluster near Zagara’s. “Interesting appearance. Going for the secret agent look, Sweetie? I can tell there’s more to you than meets the eye though.”

Sweetie smirked, “I’ve always liked this look. If this is going to be our final battle, I wanna look good.” She created a pair of sunglasses made of a similar material to her suit to put over her horn for the time being since the Void was dark enough without them before focusing her attention on Amon.

Celestia took her position among the Protoss alongside Lyra while Luna positioned herself inside the Terran base alongside Discord. Sweetie and Kerrigan stood together in Zagara’s hive cluster.

All three bases prepared outposts to maximize all resource gathering. A number of Void Chasms burst from the land, periodically spawning Void Shadows. Sweetie moved to one and flapped her wings, sending a number of feathers into the air. The feathers transformed into Banelings and rammed themselves into the Chasm. She fired a powerful blast from her horn to seal it.

Amon summoned a Torment Construct to attack Sweetie who had created an Ultralisk egg. When the egg hatched, a colossal Ultralisk emerged and smashed the construct with its blades with a motion that was akin to blade dancing.

Kerrigan spawned a number of Zerg to assist her in dealing with another Void Chasm. Once the rift was sealed, her forces focused on one of Amon’s Void Crystals. Amon sent a few constructs to defend the Crystal but she and her Zerg managed to shatter it in the end.

Celestia and Lyra took some Protoss forces with them and sealed a Chasm north of their base.

To everyone’s horror, Amon began to counterattack by obliterating parts of the landmass. His first target was Raynor’s primary Command Center.

Sweetie suspected that Amon’s strategy was to deprive the alliance of resources by tearing the landmass apart. This brought a sense of urgency to the three factions to hurry and deal with the Void Crystals.

Luna and Discord cooperated with Raynor and Tychus to deal with a nearby Void Crystal using a force of Thors, Vikings and the Odin. The void energies of the realm interfered with Discord’s chaos magic, leaving him with only his more conventional abilities, meaning that he couldn’t simply displace or alter anything while in the Void. However, he could still use destructive magic to damage and destroy the Crystal. He snapped his talons and a bombardment of meteors crashed into the Crystal while the Thors and Odin blasted it with their cannons and Luna dealt the finishing blow with her broadsword.

The second Crystal was shattered.

Celestia and Lyra engaged a Crystal near their base. Amon summoned numerous Constructs to defend it. The fleet of Void Rays were able to quickly destroy each Construct one by one. Celestia concentrated a beam of solar destruction on the Crystal while Lyra concentrated a beam of void energies which shattered the Crystal.

Discord and Luna worked with Raynor to shatter a Crystal that was floating around the northern reaches of the area.

The battle continued as it did with keeping the Void Chasms dormant, shattering Constructs, evacuating areas that were going to collapse under Amon’s power and shattering Void Crystals.

“Why do you side with a murderer? Why can’t you Equestrians understand that I am trying to bring about a world without pain? Without suffering? Without needless death?” Amon asked.

“Because pain and suffering are how we know we are alive,” Sweetie countered. “Let me ask, what is living without feeling anything? How do we know we are alive if we don’t feel alive?”

“No. Feeling is unnecessary. Life will endure under my guidance. You have had your share of suffering. Would you not wish the pain to go away? Would you not wish to live your life happily with Lyra Heartstrings without the pain of that stallion’s betrayal haunting you every day?”

“While I do want to confront the source of my pain, I will do it my way. Living with pain would be preferable to leading a hollow life without excitement. I want to live freely; I will not have some God with a twisted philosophy control my actions.”

“Then I will make you and the entire universe submit to my order!”

Kerrigan and the Ponies combined their energies to destroy the last Void Crystal.

Kerrigan and the Ponies looked at the exposed Amon, ready for Kerrigan to deal the final blow.

“It is over, Amon,” Kerrigan said.

“You are but a product of the flawed Cycle. Manipulated for the entirety of your existence,” Amon said.

“You know nothing about me! I care little for the Xel’naga’s Infinite Cycle or your twisted lies. No, I choose something different. I choose freedom...for all of us.”

Kerrigan focused one intense blast at Amon’s head which caused his form to shatter. With his destruction, Kerrigan had everyone return to their ships and flee the Void.

Kerrigan and the Equestrians started into the abyss where Amon stood for a few minutes before the landmass began to quake and break apart.

The former Queen of Blades looked at the Equestrians and asked, “Why have you not fled with them?”

“If you can sense it, so can we,” Sweetie responded.

The landmass soon gave way, leaving everyone to fall into the abyss and land on a large shadowy platform. Kerrigan, Sweetie, Lyra, Discord, Celestia and Luna prepared themselves for what was coming.

Soon after, a black clawed hand emerged from the platform and slammed down. Amon emerged in a new form. While his face was the same, his appearance seemed to be a mix of his original form and a Hybrid Behemoth. He was now about the size of Kerrigan.

He stared at his opponents with rage in his eyes. “I WILL TEAR YOUR UNIVERSE APART!”

Amon began the fight by firing a beam of void energy at the group and forced them to scatter. Celestia, Luna and Lyra each fired magical beams at the Fallen One. He blocked them with his hand and charged at Celestia.

Lyra moved in to intercept but Amon could detect her presence and temporarily trapped her in a Void Prison.

Luna moved to assist Celestia and managed to avoid any attacks he sent her way. Amon ended up in a melee skirmish with the Royal Sisters while using his hands to block any swings that the Sisters sent at him.

Before Discord could attack Amon, a large number of Void Shadows manifested around the Draconequus, forcing him to focus his attention on the minions.

Lyra was freed from the Void Prison and manifested Void Shadows of her own to assist Discord.

Amon felt tremors beneath him, too late for him to avoid damage but not too late to minimize it from a dodge as Sweetie emerged from beneath him with a swipe from her razor-sharp claws. Amon’s dodge was not perfect because she managed to leave a deep scratch on his leg.

The Fallen One had no idea that he had just landed into Sweetie’s trap as a number of Hydralisk heads began launching spines at him. A few managed to get past his defenses and pierce his armor before he unleashed a burst of void energy that destroyed the Scyllas around him.

Celestia and Luna charged in after the burst. The Princess of the Sun slammed the platform with her halberd and released a wave of searing solar energy while Luna moved to slash at him from behind. Amon dodged Celestia’s attack and Luna was forced to move out of the way to avoid being caught by her sister’s attack.

Amon summoned a variety of Constructs all around the edge of the platform while summoning rifts in between each construct to quickly bring in a large menagerie of Void Shadows.

Lyra put an end to Amon’s strategy by drawing the Shadows to herself and drawing their power from them. A massive sphere of void energy was created from the Shadows and she discharged the energy all around her, targeting the Constructs and shattering them.

Amon was clearly angry from the Templar’s display of Void Manipulation and moved to attack her while she was recovering. A blast of chaos energy at his back stopped the Xel’naga in his tracks. He created a smaller sphere of void energy in his hand and discharged it at the Equestrians.

While the Ponies and Draconequus were reeling from Amon’s attack, he wasn’t expecting Kerrigan to appear in front of him and fire a Quantum Ray at his chest and force him back a significant distance. Her Celestial Radiance helped the Equestrians recover from Amon’s attack and allowed them to continue the battle.

Before Amon could recover from Kerrigan’s attack, Sweetie had altered her essence and sprayed his face with petrifying saliva. While it wouldn’t fully petrify him, it would still make his movements sluggish.

Celestia and Luna capitalized on the opportunity and sliced off the tendrils from Amon’s back.

Amon roared in pain before he gathered void energy into both hands and fired powerful beams from them. Everyone managed to dodge the Fallen One’s attack and Lyra quickly closed the distance with her speed. He stopped firing and grabbed the Templar and attempted to crush her.

She vanished in a puff of psionic smoke.

Before Amon could grasp what happened, a green light fell upon his wrist and severed his right hand.

Amon teleported to an area of the platform that was slightly distant from his foes and took the time to ask, “How did I not sense the illusion?”

Lyra smirked, “It’s a trick I learned from Aldaris. He taught me how to create Hallucinations that could not be detected.”

Amon growled loudly before a number of tentacles emerged from the ground and wrapped around him. A large number of Banelings descended from above him and crashed into him, splashing their acidic payload all over his body and causing the Xel’naga to scream in agony.

By the time the pain subsided enough for him to think, Amon saw all six of his foes each preparing a powerful blast that he feared would be the end of him. Celestia prepared a Solar Blast, Luna a Lunar Blast, Discord a Chaos Blast, Kerrigan a Quantum Ray, Lyra a Void Blast and Sweetie a Psionic Blast.

Amon used his remaining hand to draw in all the void energies he could for his final attack.

Everyone fired their attacks at the same time and met in the center of the platform.

While normally, Amon would have been able to drive the energies back at his opponents, his earlier battles and maintaining the Void Barrier had begun to take their toll on him. He found himself on the losing end of the power contest.

“Why? Why would you choose suffering? Your loved ones will perish while time is practically frozen for all of you. Why would you suffer this eternal torment as a Xel’naga?” Amon asked.

“It may be painful to live for eternity, but as long as we have friends to share our pain, we will find a way to cope,” Sweetie responded.

“Very well...If you choose to suffer for eternity, that is your choice. But I shall not suffer the life that I did not choose. If I cannot change the world around me, the world shall suffer onward without me.”

Before anyone could react, Amon stopped fighting back and let the attacks make contact with his body. At the same time, he drew in all of the void energies around him and directed them inward, tearing his body from the inside out. With one last scream, Amon exploded in a violent blast of void energies.

Everything around them became silent as the battle had reached its conclusion. The Ponies took a moment to silently pray for the soul of the Fallen One to find peace.

With their task complete, the Xel’naga and Lyra left the Void to its denizens.

Author's Note

I added in that extra fight with Amon because a part of me felt like the actual fight was a bit anticlimactic since all you really did was smash a few crystals to make the Xel'naga vulnerable to a single blast from Kerrigan. This way, the final battle was more satisfying.

3 chapters left. Next up: Farewells and intergalactic politics.

Diplomacy and Loose Ends

Kerrigan and the Equestrians managed to escape from the Void as the rift began to close. Thankfully, the Xel’naga could survive in the vacuum of space while Lyra had her own air supply within her own shield.

The Hyperion was nearby waiting to pick up any stragglers so the Equestrians teleported aboard.

Raynor was the first to speak, “What happened? What took you so long to get back?”

“Amon took the fight into overtime. Don’t worry, were pretty sure he’s dead now,” Sweetie said.

“So does this mean it’s over?”

“I think so. Guess this means we need to start saying our goodbyes to our friends.”

“Not quite yet,” Celestia interjected. “Luna and I have been talking and we want to explore the sector a little. We don’t get to leave Equus often…”

“...More like ever,” Luna added.

“We want to see the marvels of technology that our people have been missing out on because of our stagnating system of government,” Celestia finished after rolling her eyes at her sister.

“If it’s advice on runnin’ a government, you should probably talk to Emperor Valerian. He’s young, but he knows how to run a regime better than most in this sector,” Raynor said.

“After that, you should have a talk with Tassadar,” Lyra said. “He’s been talking to me about meeting you and discussing a proposal for establishing a colony on Equus.”

Celestia smiled, “Then I shall meet with him after we have explored the sector and spoken with Emperor Valerian.”

Suddenly, a concerning thought struck Sweetie, “What about Equestria? Is it alright to leave the kingdom unattended for so long?”

“Don’t worry, Equestria is in good hands.”

Meanwhile…

At Canterlot Castle, a lavender Alicorn could be heard screaming in frustration, “WHY IS TAKING CARE OF EQUESTRIA SO DIFFICULT!”

While the Princesses were out exploring the worlds of the Koprulu Sector, Sweetie decided that she had time for one last experiment. Projecting her will into one of her Larvae, she planted a certain part of her mind and three competing Pony gene sequences into it.

Lyra observed Sweetie’s experiment with the utmost curiosity. She saw the target Larva encase itself into an egg. She and Sweetie looked into the egg as best as they could and watched the Larva develop.

“So, what are we gonna name the little one?” Lyra asked.

“I don’t know yet. Even I don’t know what to expect from this,” Sweetie responded.

After watching the egg develop for a few hours, the shell started showing signs that the life within was ready to hatch. A few seconds later, the Zerg Egg shattered and revealed a black colt with strands of a crimson mane and tail. The foal had a horn on his head to show that the unicorn gene won the competition.

Sweetie picked up the foal and cradled him in her arms. After a few minutes the foal was passed to Lyra who had collected a number of supplies for the foal after she heard what the experiment was going to be about.

The two spent several hours taking care of the foal before he tuckered out and was put in a bed to sleep.

After the battle in the Void, Zagara had declared herself as Overqueen of the Zerg Swarm. All Broods, with the exception of Sweetie’s Brood, acknowledged her as their Queen. Since Sweetie was planning on leaving for Equus with her Brood soon, Zagara gave the new Xel’naga Pony a parting gift by ordering Kilysa to give one of her Leviathans to her.

Since they would be leaving the sector soon, it was time for Sweetie to fulfill her end of the bargain with Hanson by taking her to Haven. During the travel time, Sweetie taught Hanson, Stetmann, Stukov and DuGalle how to use their new Changeling forms to shapeshift. After a number of tries, Hanson was able to shapeshift into her human self. She pulled out a mirror that she kept in her lab coat to make sure everything was in order. She became ecstatic when she saw herself as human again. Although she knew that she was no longer human, it was enough for her to look like her old self.

Once Sweetie’s Leviathan was over Haven, Sweetie teleported herself and Hanson to the colony.

Sweetie wanted to look familiar to the colony so she shapeshifted into her Earth Pony form wearing her Hostile Environment Suit. The colonists immediately recognized her as one of the heroes that made their colony possible.

Sweetie asked where Bernard Hanson was. The colonists led her and Ariel to the building where he was. Surprisingly, they discovered that Talise Cogan, Ariel’s mother was also there.

Ariel entered the house where her father lived but Sweetie stayed out since the matter was not something she should have been involved with. Sweetie heard some yelling and an occasional impact of an object which she expected since Ariel and her mother had issues. She could only hope they would be able to come to a mutual understanding.

Ariel exited the house and saw Sweetie nearby. She walked up to the Pony before Sweetie asked, “How did it go?”

“Well, my parents are glad to know that I’m alive, especially my mother since she figured I died on Meinhoff. I told them about a long term project that I have volunteered to participate in and they supported me, both of them. I told mother how I felt about her deciding what’s best for my life and she decided to let up on me...may have to do with her thinking I died on Meinhoff.”

“So, have you said your goodbyes?”

“They hope I will come back to visit often and I hope that can be the case.”

“I’ll see what I can do. I can’t guarantee that I’ll be able to come back to the Koprulu Sector very often but I’ll bring you along when I do. You sure you don’t want to spend more time with your parents? You may not see them for years.”

Hanson sighed, “I know, but I need some time to process my emotions. I hope to see them again soon, but since my mother and father are living together again, not too soon.”

Sweetie’s next trip was to Korhal. Celestia and Luna had their fill of the galaxy for the time being and decided to meet with some of the leaders of the sector’s dominant factions.

Raynor had called ahead and told Valerian that Sweetie and Lyra were coming to visit him along with the leaders of the Ponies.

During their ascent to the throne room, Sweetie came across a person she had been wanting to see before she returned home. She told the others to go on without her while she had a chat with the person. Celestia nodded and she and the others entered the elevator that would take them further up in the palace.

Sweetie walked up to Nova and the two spent a minute in silence staring at each other. Sweetie decided to speak first, “Are you still upset that I called you out on your lies and staged a prison break of New Folsom?”

“Did you know that a portion of those escaped prisoners became members of Moebius Corps? I hope you realized the pros and cons of your actions. Tosh may not have been the psychopath that I made him out to be, but certain parts of that prison break came back to bite him when a number of his Spectre comrades were part of the attack that devastated Augustgrad two years ago. I have Lyra to thank for helping to minimize civilian casualties in that battle.

“As for you and I, I’m not mad that you called me out. I’m not mad that you evaded me and escaped with Kerrigan back at the Umojan facility. I’m not mad that you were right about not all Spectres being violent psychopaths. What I am mad about is that you, someone who has never trained at a Ghost Academy, still had the talent to be one of the best practitioners of covert ops in the Koprulu Sector. Me and countless other Ghosts and Spectres still couldn’t compare to your skills, Xel'naga powers or not. Though no one will say it to your face, I will: every covert ops unit in the Koprulu sector envies you and your skills and we will knock you off the top of the mountain one day.”

Nova walked off.

As she walked away, Sweetie gave a smirk as she realized that she may have some newfound respect for the Dominion assassin.

Deciding to let Nova have this moment, Sweetie remained silent as she entered the elevator to catch up to the others.

In the throne room, Sweetie saw Celestia and Valerian exchanging political experiences with one another while Lyra and Luna looked bored just watching them.

Valerian had noted that the nobility system was a highly outdated system that died out long before humanity traversed the stars. The young emperor gave Celestia some ideas on other governmental systems to try out when she got back. While they would take many years to implement, the alabaster Alicorn had hope that the government that she ruled over could be streamlined with some of Valerian’s proposals.

The talks carried on for hours. Luna had one hand holding up her head and Lyra had fallen asleep. Sweetie was on the border between sleep and wakefulness herself.

When the meeting finally ended, everyone shook off their sleepy feelings and teleported to Sweetie’s Leviathan for the last matter they needed to deal with during their stay in the Koprulu Sector.

When the Leviathan arrived over Aiur, a nearby patrol ship requested identification. The passengers were allowed to teleport to the surface once Sweetie and Lyra identified themselves alongside Celestia and Luna.

The Ponies were escorted to the Citadel where Hierarch Tassadar resided. As they walked, they noticed that the Protoss were acknowledging Lyra in reverence.

“You certainly seem popular here,” Celestia commented.

“Apparently I’m a hero to these people. They even regard me in their salutations. It’s kinda like a hall of fame to them in that regard,” Lyra responded.

“Huh, maybe I should be using it as well,” Celestia giggled, which Lyra responded by blushing.

The group saw Tassadar alongside his advisors Artanis, Fenix, Aldaris, Rohana, Vorazun, Zeratul, Talandar and Alarak.

There appeared to be a conversation going on between Alarak and the others.

“I told you that this alliance is only temporary. As soon as Lyra arrives, I will have her fulfill her end of the bargain and have her turn over leadership of the Tal’darim to me,” Alarak said.

“I’m here,” Lyra said.

Alarak stared at Lyra, “If you have responded that quickly to what I just said that means you heard it. Now, are you going to do so or do I have to duel you for it?”

Celestia tilted her head, “That voice...Is that you, Discord?”

“Of course not you stupid Pony. What in this entire universe gave you the impression that I was some amalgamation of beasts?”

“Because you have the same voice as him,” Lyra responded.

Discord appeared in front of the group as suddenly as usual. He was holding an Ihan Crystal. “Yes, yes, we all have good ol’ de Lancie to thank for that,” he said indifferently which earned him confused looks from everyone in the room. “Anyway, here is the memory for your archives.” He handed the Crystal to Tassadar.

“You have my thanks for recording this glorious moment in our people’s history.”

Discord ignored Tassadar and turned his attention to the Ponies. He held out another crystal and gave it to Sweetie. “This crystal will guide you home. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a tea party to get back to.” With a snap of his fingers, Discord disappeared.

Multiple matters were discussed afterward. Lyra talked to Alarak about handing leadership of the Tal’darim to him but not before giving whoever wished to follow her a chance at a new life and creating a new culture alongside the Equestrians while those who liked their old culture were allowed to follow Alarak. The Tal’darim became divided that day. The divide had created two Highlords who would lead them to different destinies.

Celestia and Tassadar discussed the matter of the colony on Equus and the pros and cons of such an action. They discussed what Equestria and the colony could offer each other and a place in the world they could settle. Since the Protoss could travel with interstellar ships, the Pony nation would be a stone’s throw away no matter where they settled.

Celestia also discussed a matter with Sweetie. Since she intended on bringing her Brood to Equus, she needed a place to set up a primary hive cluster. Since there wasn’t a lot of places to put a race of constantly evolving organisms, they agreed that if she removed or integrated Chrysalis’ hive in the Badlands, they could set up there. Celestia also noted that she was hoping an Alicorn that specialized in essence would ascend so the failed experiments would be able to find purpose again. She wanted Chrysalis to have a future when Equestria entered a golden age.

In exchange for going along with Celestia’s idea, Sweetie didn’t want the Equestrian royalty to recognize her as a Princess of Equestria yet until she was ready and the nation was ready for her.

In the meantime, she would bring in specialists in to educate the Equestrian scientists to jumpstart the nation’s technological development. She also hoped that Stukov and DuGalle could contribute their knowledge of military strategy and tactics in case other nations got rowdy. The other nations would be brought in on Equestria’s bid for space exploration in time.

When an agreement was made, the Equestrians enjoyed what little time they had left in the Koprulu Sector until the colonists were ready to follow the Ponies back home.

Sweetie had her Brood board her new interstellar lifeform along with those who volunteered to take part in her Equus advancement project. Swann was uncomfortable with not only being inside a Zerg organism, but also being the only actual human on the ship. Thankfully, the Leviathan was stocked with enough supplies for the long journey to Equus.

Author's Note

Finally, everyone's either going home or making a new home. Time for Sweetie to put some of her plans into action and a reckoning to bring about.

Next Chapter: Going home and taking care of a matter that has been a long time coming.

Epilogue: The Dawn of Exploration

Over the course of half a year, Sweetie Drops visited the numerous Changeling hives that dotted Equus. While many were open to negotiation because they were sick of their lifestyle of living off love for their entire existence, some became hardened by the harsh life they were forced to live and were hostile to anyone outside their hive.

Sweetie had no problem dealing with them through a show of force and prove herself as the superior Overqueen of the Changelings. Her adventures in the Koprulu Sector had made her one of the most powerful beings on Equus.

After a few demonstrations of her power and the power of her Brood were made, the other Queens spread word of her power and they soon flocked to Sweetie for the sake of their own survival.

While the Changelings remained wary of Celestia, they were alright with Sweetie being their voice in the Equestrian government.

Progress was made in Equestria as well. Using the knowledge she gained from Valerian’s political experience, Celestia was able to drain the political power from the nobility and replace the council with a different one using representatives of each town and city in Equestria that were elected by the people.

Blueblood was forced to act as Sweetie’s proxy in the Equestrian government for years to come. Every decision that the unofficial Princess wanted to contribute to would be made through him. He was also appointed as the diplomat to the Changelings. Occasionally he had to leave Canterlot for a few days to maintain the illusion that he was upholding his duties as a diplomat.

Meanwhile, Celestia began spreading a rumor of a new Princess that would join the ranks of royalty at some point in the future but for the time being would remain unnamed because of Sweetie’s wishes. Sweetie would, however, give anonymous interviews in disguise to give credence to those rumors.

Shortly after the infection, Blueblood made a public announcement to absolve the former S.M.I.L.E. agents of the crimes they were accused and used his own funds to erect a monument dedicating the agency as the heroes of Equestria that they truly were.

Classes were being held in a forum in Canterlot, where many of the scientific and engineering minds of Equestria were in attendance. Twilight Sparkle attended every scientific forum offered by the new guests.

Ariel Hanson gave lectures on Terran medical science and bio-engineering while leaving out the “Terran” part until Celestia’s big reveal of life beyond their world. Her lectures had introduced new ideas in the Equestrian medical industry and within the next few years, the overall mortality rate had dropped ten percent; a significant improvement.

Egon Stetmann brought to light new branches of scientific research and new technologies that eventually introduced the computer to Equestria. Through the technical advice of Stetmann, the development of the computer was expedited faster than humanity developed their systems. The development rate of technology eventually slowed to about the same rate that humans improved their systems after Stermann taught the Ponies everything he knew.

Because of this, Ponies soon looked to the stars and imagined what was beyond their world.

Rory Swann introduced motorized vehicles to Equestria as well as a number of other machines that improved the production rate within factories while the workers were retrained in the maintenance of those machines.

When asked about his mechanical arm, Swann told them how it worked. This brought another branch of the medical industry into being with the introduction of mechanical prosthetics.

When his work was done and he taught Equestria everything he knew, he secretly had a Protoss ship take him back to the Koprulu Sector while the Equestrians believe he had mysteriously disappeared.

Kerrigan and Raynor mysteriously disappeared from the Koprulu Sector. None of the sector’s denizens knew what happened to the new Xel’naga and the man she loved. At the same time, a mysterious pair of ponies, one a rugged white Earth Pony stallion with a black mane and tail and brown eyes and the other a purple Pegasus mare with a red mane and tail and green eyes, appeared and registered as citizens of Equestria. They built a farm on the outskirts of Ponyville where they would live their lives in peace.

Since Blueblood’s “change of heart,” an investigation was opened into discovering the truth about what really happened to the agency. Although there was no evidence to prove it, the investigators did find reasonable cause to believe that Blueblood was involved due to his change in behavior. Princess Celestia informed the investigators of what really happened and the testimony of one who witnessed the whole thing would talk to them when she became available but also assured them that while she knew he was guilty, he was actually serving a lifetime punishment. She simply left out the part about Blueblood’s permanent upstairs roommate.

As the years went by, however, Blueblood started losing his grasp on his sanity as he questioned whether his words or his actions were his own or the will of his puppet master.

As a hero to the colony, Lyra was chosen to act as their diplomat. Celestia felt that Equestria wasn’t ready to meet the Protoss yet and would need to gradually introduce the new race to the population by circulating stories about them before leading some explorer like Daring Do to them who will publicize her findings and she could officially begin diplomacy. Celestia would reveal the story of Lyra’s and Sweetie’s adventures in the Koprulu sector in time when the nation was ready.

Since Lyra’s life and Sweetie’s life were literally bound together, she could take her time on that long term plan.

Years passed and Protoss were soon introduced to the Equestrians. They were well received since they were no strangers to warrior cultures like the Minotaurs.

When the time came for the fated world summit, Celestia introduced the nations to the source of their sudden technological boom in the form of minds that originated from beyond the stars.

While they met Celestia with jealousy and anger, Celestia explained that she wanted her nation’s technological growth to stabilize before the reveal to prevent some reckless scientist from a foreign country from misusing dangerous technology which the other diplomats had to admit to having at least one or two that they knew. Celestia was prepared to offer them a place in a new world order where the nations would unite into a single organization with the purpose of moving beyond Equus and exploring new worlds. She had convinced scholars to move into other nations to teach them what they learned in Equestria long before the summit.

The diplomats knew of this and were somewhat convinced of Celestia’s intent on spreading her people’s knowledge. They were still uncertain whether she had an ulterior motive beyond global unification through a common interest. Several representatives said ‘no’, but Celestia kept the offer open for them should they change their minds in the hope that they only needed a few decades to think it over.

The Minotaurs decided to offer the services of their forges to the Equestrians in the construction of their first spacecraft. What they didn’t say was that their decision was influenced when a rocket-powered outhouse landed in their territory and what appeared to be a Minotaur in a CMC suit and carrying an advanced-looking rifle emerged from it. The rocket exploded, stranding their visitor. The Minotaurs were in awe by his awesomeness that they agreed to work with Equestria to build him a new space worthy vessel.

It wasn’t long after the summit that the progressive-minded ponies had enough influence in society to convince the people to give the Changelings a chance to become a part of the future. What they weren’t expecting was one of their own was not only leading the entire race along with a race of vicious-looking creatures that obeyed her like she had an army of pets, but she was also the mysterious princess that the rumors had mentioned for years.

When the right questions were asked, Celestia and Sweetie agreed that they couldn’t keep her secret status a secret for much longer. Sweetie had plenty of time to mentally prepare herself for her official coronation as a Princess of Equestria. She wasn’t looking forward to being in the public eye constantly, but she was willing to put up with it since Lyra would be with her every step of the way.

It would only be a matter of time until the denizens of Equus perfect space travel. But they won’t be exploring it blind as they will have the guidance and the Protoss and the protection of her Zerg as they explore the infinite cosmos.

Author's Note

We have reached the end of the story. I hope you enjoyed the ride.

I tried to wrap up as many loose ends in this chapter as I could. Since this is the first story I have ever written, I feel like I left at least one or two unaccounted for.

If or when I decide to write another story, I hope to have improved by then.

I'd also like to thank Devela for prereading my stories from the beginning...pretty much.