I made it into the room in question a short time later. We were quickly running out of time, and the path my team had been on was the only one yet to be fully explored. It was bad enough that Walter sent three teams back along the path to get what we came for, I sent all of my Predators with the units under one of my Imperial Guards control to assist as well.

My concern now though was the royally pissed off Protoss, judging by the lack of ‘dreads’ or whatever it was that connected them to the Khala, it was a Dark Templar. I was alone in the room as well, mostly because we had a minor hiccup where the Dark Templar decided to invade and overcome one of our Medics into shooting at us.

The Medic in question was fine, unconscious, but fine and everyone else had left the room. I stayed behind, to the great annoyance of Trenton, because I was the only one proving immune to the mind control he was exhibiting.

“En Taro Adun Dark Templar.” Oh God, I hoped I got that right, I honestly knew next to nothing about the Protoss greetings, but this was something spammed over and over in the game, so it stuck.

The Protoss, a colossal specimen standing almost nine feet tall, wore the basic garb you’d see on a Dark Templar though he lacked the Psionic Blade they used in combat. He paused when I said my greeting, regarding me with open distrust, at least I think that’s what his look meant. It could have just as easily meant ‘I will rip you in twain’ or something else painful.

“Human, how do you know that greeting?” I sighed a little bit in relief at that. He wasn’t pushing his Psionic Power to try and overwhelm me anymore. Curiosity saved the cat in this case.

“I’ve been around, how did these Terrans manage to capture one of your kind? I know it would have cost them a great deal.” He let out a little Psionic growl before speaking, or thinking, at me again.

“My brothers and I were sent to assess the Zerg Presence, if there was a Cerebrate present or not before those on Adun send the Golden Armada.” Well then, that kinda went in line with what I remembered, though as far as I knew no Dark Protoss had been present during Mar Sara becoming a glass ball.

“You will release me, Terran, and I will leave peacefully.” I frowned at him then, the Dark Templar and the Templar tended to honor their words. I’d spent a little too long around people in general though.

“Swear on Raszagal, Dark One, that you will in no way cause harm to me and mine, and I will release you to go your own way.” The Dark Templar froze instantly and then reacted by launching himself at the bars, trying to reach me.

“How do you know her name! She is hidden, secret; you have no way of knowing!” I recoiled in the face of his Psionically powered anger, taking a step back and thinking as fast as I could. I’d have to lie my ass off here if I wanted to calm him down, I had no idea if it would cause issues down the road either though. Fuck! I should have just kept my mouth shut, or chosen Zeratul.

“Stop! Calm down, please! I met Zeratul once, helped him when he was in trouble. I swear that I know little else about your people!”

As quickly as the anger was there, it fled. “You know the Prelate? How is that possible, he would not betray our Matriarch in such a way.” confusion was evident in his ‘voice.’ Time to bring it home and hope this doesn’t bite me in the ass when I meet the Dark Templar in question.

“He was gravely injured and believed himself to be dying. Incoherent and racked with pain the name slipped. I patched him up and swore I’d never mention the name again unless needed. No one else knows, I swear.”

A long moment passed before he responded to me again. “Very well, I swear upon our Matriarch that I will cause you and yours no harm while here.” I felt the relief wash over me and then I released the cage. Allies were hard enough to come by and earning his trust, even though a lie, would help me somehow...I hope.

“I am Nera, Dark Templar. Your name Terran?”

“I’m Damian Fern, former Magistrate of the Confederacy.” Nera looked down at me; the damn thing was genuinely massive to do that while I was in Marine armor.

“Thank you, Damian Fern, for your assistance. I shall not forget you.”

He faded into shadows and was gone a second later, as though he had never been there, to begin with. I opened my comm channel and told them to get in here. “It’s clear; he’s gone.”

Trenton entered, followed quickly by Raynor and Walter. “What happened?” was Walters question. I explained everything that occurred and advised them always to be respectful to the Protoss if they met them. Raynor would for sure, and I knew the Marshal would do just that in the future. Never hurt to give a little warning though.

“Right, search the room and move to the extraction, our other teams got what we came for, no casualties. It seems all the remaining people in the Facility became Infested.” Well, that was a cheerful notion. I frowned while searching the room with everyone else. We got little, though I found data containing information on the Protoss biology. Thinking it would be useful later on I went ahead and grabbed it.

As we were wrapping up our quick search, I stumbled upon a hidden door, just behind one of the computers. I called over Trenton and Raynor to help me move the big thing. It took some effort, enough that I had been tempted to let it go, but we finally moved the damnable thing.

Walter was rushing our people still here out the entrance and back of the room to the extraction point; we were quickly coming up on our deadline to be out of here before enemy forces showed up. I wasn’t paying attention to him right now though, the contents of the room utterly controlled my attention.

Raynor let out a small whistle while Trenton managed a quiet ‘damn.’ What lay within the small hidden room was a treasure trove. Weapons, armor, and several data pads. Walter came over, stopping after he saw the small room before grabbing the data pads while Raynor nabbed a massive gun from the rack of weapons, even Trenton grabbed something that looked an awful lot like his Lance Rifle, though bulkier.

My eyes were trained on the only item I felt worth any of this shit, a gauntlet, a Protoss gauntlet. I grabbed it, holding onto the damn thing and hoping I’d take it with me. I knew the System didn’t allow Campaign items to be removed, but I could hope. Trenton ended up discarding his little weapon gain seeing it was just a primitive version of what he already had. That led me to think about if the Confederates in the Campaign Maps would adapt with weaponry I brought but was left behind on anyone that died. A chilling thought.

“Hostiles incoming sir, we have ten minutes to bug out.” came a male voice over the comms, followed by a quick curse from Walter as he shouted at us to move it or lose it. We ran it, and fast.

When we finally arrived at the entrance to the facility, I noticed a box pop up, what I read did nothing to calm me down either.

System Announcement!

You have failed to escape the Facility within the estimated time given; you must now survive the reinforcements sent to the installation to retreat successfully!

Succeed - Campaign Map completion.

Failure - Death.

“Walter, we need to form up, we won’t get out in time.” The big man looked at me and frowned but nodded.

“Take your people and get them ready.” I thought a moment, grabbing him by the shoulder before he could leave for his men.

“Let my boys form up in front; they have better defensive capabilities.” I was risking losing my people, but it was worth it to get Walter to trust me a bit more. Kind of anyway, him trusting me would make my life far easier. Raynor, for his part, laughed and gripped my shoulder, as well as Walters other shoulder. “You two need to get over whatever is happening here; we have enemies coming at us.”

I smiled a little, leave it to the younger Raynor to lighten the mood a little. I turned to Trenton and had him lead the Imperial Guard into formation. They moved as one, locking their shields in place like they were trained, using the massive shields as a bulwark while making use of their secondary specializations or primary. The Ranged turned into little mobile artillery stations and were placed in the center on either side of Trenton's massive frame while the Melee took up the flanks. He set the healing specializations at critical areas while the Medics moved in groups of two, getting ready to heal anyone that needed it.

For my part I let out a sharp whistle, calling the wandering Predators to me. I’d send them out at a critical moment when the enemy was fully engaged and hope they provided enough of a surprise to let us deal with any complications. The Condors couldn’t enter the building themselves, so Trenton moved the guard forward to line up between the two large vehicles.

I looked over to Walter and saw him get his men up behind my guard, rifles placed on their shoulders, the unburdened ones at least. As long as they didn’t send anything worse than infantry or light vehicles we would hold out well. A Siege Tank would shatter us though. I’d have to hope The System didn’t throw anything like that at me for now.

“Incoming!” shouted Trenton, and I saw it as well. Three dropships were coming in hot; the center one had something under it. I zoomed in using a function on my visor and started cursing; it was a fucking Goliath. “Trenton! Walter! Raynor! We got a Goliath inbound; center drop ship has it.”

Walter started talking at the same time Raynor did. “We need to take it down!” The fact they both said the same thing at the same time would have been humorous at any other time. It was merely a fact as it was though.

“Trenton! Tell me we have something that can hit the fucker before it lands!” The big man was the only one who hadn’t spoken when I announced the Goliath. The silence stretched, and I was about to yell my question at him again when he answered.

“Only your Rifle has the range, sir, though I am unsure about the damage. Our Condors could take it out when it lands, but we’d suffer casualties. Beyond that, we are not equipped for a Goliath.”

Well, don’t that just beat all. I growled out and looked down at my Rifle. She had some dents and dings from the fights I’d been in, but the damn thing had proven itself time and again. I was trying to think of a way around this, some way to take out the central ship. Maybe if I rapid fire my burst shot or...Psionic Tempest, if I could get close enough. I didn't want to use that damn thing though, my Psionic power pool was large enough with my passive that cut all Psionic Power costs in half, but it would strain my brain a lot. It would allow everyone to survive though, if it worked as well. I laughed without mirth when I told Trenton my plan.

“Absolutely fucking not!” Oddly enough it was Walter that objected. “We have no clue if you going out there on a Condor and using whatever Ghost like ability you have would take it down.”

“Not like we have a choice, Walter, though I don’t like it either Damian.” came Raynor’s response. “If you do that, then you’ll need someone that can turn those engines, so I’d be the driver.”

Huh? I felt heartened by the man, but I didn’t want to risk frying him if my Tempest went a little off-kilter. “I’m not so sure that would be good.” - “It’s as good an idea as your own. Take it or leave it but I won’t let you on one of those things unless I’m driving.”

I frowned but gave up in the end. The man was one hell of a Vulture pilot and those skills transferred to the Condor. Raynor went to commandeer one while I dealt with the most significant obstacle, almost literally. Trenton.

He stood there, in my way, like a massive immovable mountain. “Sir, you make it very hard for me to do my job.” I had a feeling that wasn’t the first time he’d told me that, but it didn’t matter.

“No choice, it has enough of a chance at working that I’m willing to take it to keep you all alive.” I ignored the loyalty messages showing increases of two or three throughout my people. Trenton still wasn’t moving; I heard the metal grown as he gripped his shield. He was fighting with his better judgment to stop me and following an order.

I placed a hand on his shoulder, shaking him a bit. “Think of it this way; if I fail, it just means that Fernando will have something new to yell at me about.”

That brought the big man out of his little dilemma enough to make a groaning sound. “Please don’t mention to him I let you do this, he will likely roll me into a ball and toss me into a star somewhere for allowing you to be this stupid.”

“Hey! I’m not always this stupid!” He just moved his helmeted head to look at me a moment. “Fine, I am, but it needs to be done!”

He stepped aside while muttering something about how he would survive our return if Fernando found out about this. I’d give the man a raise later, keep him from Greens clutches maybe; I don’t know.

We were off two minutes later. My happy ass was firmly placed on the closed hatch of the Condor while Raynor was moving at speeds close to two hundred miles an hour, I was thrilled my armor had stabilizers that helped me survive the thrashing winds. I still had no idea how he could make these big bastards go so much faster than they were capable of, but it made me want to have Swann work on a quick version sometime.

I lifted my rifle, taking aim at the center shuttle and firing off a Burst Shot in the vain hope it would take the damn thing out. The shot went wide and hit one of the wings. It caused a massive boom and a dip but otherwise didn’t stop them. If anything it made the damn thing move ahead of time, it was lowering the Goliath now, and we were maybe half a mile from them.

Raynor sped up further, shocking the piss out of me because it made the Condor pop a willie. He started firing at the ground, the grenades not making it anywhere near the actual Goliath but making the dropship change trajectory a little.

It would have bought us some time as well, but the fucking Goliath decided it wanted to join and began firing on us. Raynor started to zigzag, the motion forcing me to grab on with both hands or get thrown to the ground. I’d had to throw my weapon to manage that, which pissed me off further.

“Now!” I screamed into the comm, and he slammed on the brakes while turning to the left, hard. We should have been sent rolling, but he managed to keep us stable, barely, and I threw my dumb ass from the vehicle once we slowed enough I felt I’d survive the brunt of the landing.

I mentally screamed the ability in question while I was still in the air and I felt my entire body heat up like a furnace before the electric currents being released started searing my mind from the use.

The arcs of lightning struck the Goliath, that was still firing at us, and arced up into the dropship above before the current jumped to the other two that were flying in close formation. I saw sparks start flying in the visible consols during my brief lesson in flight before I came time seemed to speed up and I went crashing into the ground like a rock, a rock with electricity flying out of it.

My only solace was the fact that just before I hit the ground at that speed, a white light enveloped me. The fucking System actually sent me good news, mostly in the form of me not dying horribly because I didn't think about how fast I had been going when I fucking jumped.

The fact that I still collided with several of my people in the Adjutant room was beside the point, I was a bit busy trying to kiss the ground through my visor, thankful I wasn't flying anymore while reading the boxes. I’d gotten one of my wishes at last.