In the space above a small planet not too close to Slayn, a red warp prism and four agile scouts appeared out of nowhere. The ships flew toward the small planet below. A few minutes after the ship’s appearance, a red corsair exited warp space. Within the corsair was a cloaked warrior. The tal’darim ships were gone, but even if they were present they wouldn’t see their follower because the corsair was modified to be able to cloak.

On the planet below was a facility with no real identifications or hints on which side the facility belonged to. The four tal’darim scouts parked above the facility. The warp prism came by next and dropped off a zealot. He was met with an ascendant.

“Ascendant.” The zealot knelt down. “4000 units of minerals have been delivered. My brothers made sure no one followed us here.” What is happening here must be concealed at all cost.

The ascendant nodded and casually dismissed the zealot, who backed off. The warp prism flew into the facility and started to unload minerals.

The ascendant’s eyes glowed for a second before turning around and walking into the facility. An invisible figure followed him.

Inside the facility, hundreds of probes were scrambling up and down and working hard to assemble a large object. Piles of minerals were being turned into parts of the vessel by the probes with incredible efficiency. All kinds of weapons and infrastructures were been added on. The cloaked figure was confused. Where is this place?

Zealots and slayers patrolled the area. The cloaked figure carefully avoided the few photon cannons and havocs that would reveal his presence.

The ascendant walked around a few probes and reached the front of the object in construction. The cloaked figure that followed him saw the basic form of the object as well.

It was a large ship. A carrier. More importantly, it was a carrier developed and created by the tal’darim fraction.

The cloaked figure was shocked.

The tal’darim society believed production was meaningless. Anyone could produce. They preferred destruction over creation. All the tal’darim weapons, armors, and ships came from defeated enemies. The most they would do was modify the captured tools to their own variations. A production facility like this was unheard of. Whoever was behind this would be disgraced for their action.

But before he could think any further the ascendant before him turned around and striked with a psionic orb. The sudden attack hit the shocked figure and pushed him out of cloaking.

Seeing an identified figure suddenly appearing, the patrolling zealots and slayers converged. A zealot even acted quickly and brought a havoc with him to provide detection. The fact that the de-cloaked figure was also a tal’darim in red armor with red void energy didn’t silence their hostility. Tal’darim were not hesitant to raise their blades on their own.

The figure stood up to a sea of weapons, but he wasn’t really scared. “I am a blood hunter under Highlord Ma’lash.” He announced as he stood up. A sense of arrogance in his voice. “Your action is against the words of Amon. Lay down your weapons and my master may be merciful.” He condemned.

Amon, the god of the tal’darim, had passed down a series of decrees. The Rak’Shir was one of them. The terrazine was another. The idea of creation being the job of the weak was just another decree passed down from the dark god himself. In the tal’darim world, going against the word of Amon was asking for death.

The blood hunter glanced through the zealots and slayers for any faltering, but none of the warriors faltered or doubted their ascendant. Those chosen to be positioned here were the most loyal soldiers. They were willing to die for their leader. It took much more than a few words to shake them.

The ascendant smirked as the blood hunter’s expression darkened from the lack of result. “Do you think you’re discreet?” He provoked. “I sensed your presence as soon as you landed your corsair. Speaking of, your corsair should be destroyed by now.” He drew his blades.

The blood hunter suddenly realized he might not be as safe as he thought. “I serve Highlord Ma’lash. Killing me will be an act of war against the Highlord.” He made a last attempt.

The ascendant smirked at the threat and started moving forward. “There are six more facilities just like this one on six different planets. Six carriers are produced with an efficiency faster than you can blink. How long do you think it will take for my master to defeat Ma'lash? Once that happens, who will dare bringing us down for going against Amon?” He was chatty. The tal’darim tend to enjoy watching their enemies fear before they kill their enemies.

The blood hunter knew he might be pretty doomed, but his pride didn’t allow him to go down without a fight. Igniting his warp blade, he disappeared in a puff of smoke and appeared beside the ascendant.

The blood hunter struck down with the element of surprise, but the ascendant responded quickly by blocking the hit with his own bane blade. The zealots and slayers stood by while the ascendant dueled with the blood hunter. A battle between two warriors would be unfair and dishonoring if others intervened.

The blood hunter preferred to fight enemies with his advantage in cloaking, but as a tal’darim he wasn’t afraid of combat. Turning the blade and pushing away the ascendant’s weapon, the blood hunter composed a psionic push toward the ascendant and pushed him back. As the ascendant steadied himself, the blood hunter disappeared into another wave of smoke.

The ascendant stood still and used his psi energy to sense where the blood hunter was. He suddenly jumped to the right and raised his blade to the left. Half a second later the blood hunter appeared right before the bane blade. Facing the glaring red blade, the blood hunter actually smirked. The ascendant felt something was wrong, but the blood hunter disappeared again and appeared to the right of the ascendant with his blade held out.

The ascendant tried to catch himself, but the time was too little and he was too close. The ascendant couldn’t help himself from smashing into the warp blade.

The warp blade cut through the plasma shield of the ascendant briefly after making contact. Tal’darim ascendants don’t carry heavy plasma shields because it would be too safe, and warp blades were designed to do heavy damage every strike. But the shield bought the ascendant some time. He used the opportunity and moved his body slightly to the side. As a result the critical strike ended up severing the ascendant’s left arm instead of killing him. The ascendant groaned from the pain, but he was alive.

The blood hunter stumbled forward. The potentially killing blow missed, and he wasn’t expecting that. The ascendant used the opportunity and stabbed the blood hunter in the chest with his remaining right bane blade and cut the opposing protoss open. The blood hunter collapsed and started to disappear, leaving just his blade and his armor as a sign of his struggle.

“Pity.” The wounded ascendant didn’t forget giving a vicious comment before using his own psi energy to heal his wound. As he was healing, he turned to a zealot and passed down orders. “Inform ascendant Nyon of what happened.” A zealot obeyed and left.

“Send the fool that brought the minerals here into a terrazine vault and keep him there. That fool nearly costed our master everything.” If the blood hunter saw what was happening here and reported back to Ma’lash, then the Highlord would not hesitate to eliminate Nyon and all his supporters. The only reason Ma’lash kept Nyon alive was because Nyon didn’t have the ships to threaten Ma’lash. If Nyon had a constant production of ships then he would overpower Ma’lash in no time. If he did, as the loyal and trusted supporter of the new Highlord the ascendant guarding the facility would be much higher in the chain. He wouldn’t let a careless zealot ruin that.

The ascendant still wasn’t feeling nice enough after sending a zealot into potential insanity. The pain was still unbearable, but the psi energy was going into effect. “Get the probes to work quicker. Nyon will be impressed when I become the first to complete the carrier.” He turned and left the construction scene.