Starcraft: Warriors of Purity

by Xarmar13

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.”>

Comments

[Black--Soul]

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.

Ha! Twilight would be green with envy.

Jorium and Terrazzine is one of the first things Discord should inport to Equis/Equus.

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?”

Odd how the protoss military didnt ex off the leadership for pulling that shit

“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.

Pretty accurate.
Odd again the templer didn't get rid if the Conclave.

[Black--Soul]

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.

That has always inconsistent. Some Protoss get dusted after minutes while other make it like Zeratul in the original and are gone in a instant...

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.

Invisible heros are so op. I love it ♡

[Black--Soul]

Funny how common sence can defeat things like game logic and blind belived things.

[Black--Soul]

If i could ask for one unit for all of my campaigns it would be the Medic. Infantry is the backbone of any army and the medic is removed in SC1 Multiplayer because how ridiculous a force bonus it grants.
I can remember how many Beserker i have to get decommissioned to the base so they don't die.
A medic could fix that...

[Black--Soul]

I conclude that Duran / Narud is probably behind the corruption of the Conclave. He knows Ajurs location since he tried to make the Protoss his servants first before the Terrazin fuel Protoss extrimists and later the Zerg take that place.

Time to save the Protoss 👍

[Black--Soul]

I wonder how we could integrate maybe the Co-op mission mechanics early on. Would make for a good story and a better sc1 experience.