Harbinger/38

Nostalgia
It was already a month since the return of the - much larger - Harbinger Fleet. Three large, hemispherical mining complexes had been fully built, greatly facilitating resource gathering compared to mining by teams of SCV's. Large residential towers had been built, holding far more than just the standard supply depot components, providing each person with considerable free space - much more than could be provided on the formerly cramped Dropships. No barracks had been built, and the first one had been dismantled; in its place were several factories that were turning out Thors and Vikings by the hour. By far the most space-occupying structures were the starports, mostly "parking lots" where the numerous starships could land for refueling and maintenance but also with starship factories of their own, constantly assembling additional Hyperion-class battlecruisers. Prominently in the center was a needle-shaped control tower, almost a kilometer tall, filled with thousands upon thousands of military personnel, issuing commands to fleet ships in orbit above so that fewer people would have to put their lives at risk aboard those vessels. What had once been a field of construction sites had by now become a nearly complete military town, black and white with Neosteel and metal. Many resource packages had been sent to the battlecruisers every day to fuel their own production facilities, with the result that the fleet was shining new and more numerous, more robust than ever before.

It was the day that his Dropships, which had gone off to Telar, returned, bringing back with them ten thousand civilians. A paltry drop in the bucket when compared to the population of that planet, but it was something. On this planet, that meant a doubling of the present human population, which not only meant a much stronger workforce but also meant that the robotic units that would be produced would have plenty of controllers, allowing for much more flexible and coordinated battle tactics.

It was, as a direct result, also the day that the Travincals would be coming. So he quickly shook himself out of his stupor and progressed to the improvised landing zones, just as silent whirring alerted the others to the dropships' arrival.

Most of the people who had first met up with the Protoss over Tarsonis had been from Antiga. They generally didn't have much connection with the new arrivals from Telar, though there was still a considerably long line of people waiting to reunite with the rest of their families. There was considerable fanfare; several entertainers had gotten out their musical instruments and hooked up loudspeakers, and now music was being pumped away into the desert atmosphere, much to the delight of those who still had not been too scarred by warfare.

Which, sadly, pertained almost exclusively to the new arrivals. Daniel had known, from ansible messages over the past week, that Telar was one of four remaining human colonies that the Zerg hadn't been to. It was so... different, to be encountering other people who have not been through what you have, who know nothing of which you speak, which has dominated your life for all these recent months...

And then, he saw them. Daniel's parents, now in their mid fourties, his younger brother Cory who was now actually older than him by over two years, Cory's innocent wife, and their toddler child. Daniel didn't expect to see anyone else related to him, since he had yet to marry, but the family brought along Cory's parents-in-law as well. Daniel was at a loss; he hadn't met them before via ansible.

"Oh, it's so nice to see you again, bro!" shouted Cory at the top of his lungs the moment he saw Daniel, and they ran for each other, ending in a long hug. "It was you who decided to send the dropships to Telar, wasn't it?"

"Indeed, it was," said Daniel.

"And it was because you wanted to meet with us again in person, right?" Before Daniel could nod, he exclaimed, "I knew it! Say, you found yourself a wife yet?"

"Um..." Daniel muttered, before the rest of his family came up, Cory's wife carrying the toddler in her arms. "Still trying to prove you're better than me, eh?" Daniel gave him a light-hearted slap on the back, before his parents practically crushed him in their rush.

Daniel dutifully gave them both a mighty hug, while Cory and wife looked on.

But with a tinge of sorrow, Daniel realized that he didn't have much to tell them. He was left just standing there, surrounded by family and without much to tell them about. He wanted to avoid the most obvious topic of all, the Zerg--he didn't want them any more worried than they were already, and besides he wanted them to think of other, more pleasant things (which would have been just about anything besides peoples' dying).

"I love you all so much, it's been long enough," Daniel finally made out. But inside, he knew that had they come earlier, he would still have nothing to tell them. Actually, that wasn't exactly true--they'd be talking, talking about things that ordinary civilians could bear to hear, such as gossip, the life of a boring Artifact Station guard--but no more.

No more, he could not. It was over for him and his relation to family.

Only then did he realize how different he had become. He wasn't like them anymore--he was outside of their group. Their peaceful group, which he had so desired. Now, he was too into the thick of the military--his life dominated by the one thought of survival against the Zerg and anyone else who stood in the way. His actions had led to the death of so many millions--indirectly or not, human or not, necessary deaths or not... it didn't matter. It was a taint that would stay with him for the rest of his life, that distinguished him so far apart from Cory, who had a happy family (at least he hoped, wearily), from his parents, who were likewise removed from the ravages of the Zerg.

"So... what have you heard about the Zerg?" he whispered fearfully to his father.

"Not much, actually. They tend to keep the stuff about the aliens all so secret from us. They've cut off communications with nine colonies already, so of course we're worried, but in Telar... Nope, it's still more of a children's story to scare them into bed before curfew time." There was no humor in that remark, Daniel realized.

"Listen, Daniel," said his mother, in a nearly pleading voice. "Don't go off fighting the Zerg on your initiative any more. Stay with us--stay with your father, your brother, and me. We don't you want you to... leave."

Daniel looked into her eyes. Those eyes belonged to the same person, those lips belonged to the same person, who had taken care of him through much of his pre-adult life. How could he refuse such a small wish? One part of him wanted to remain with family--feel secure, regain the peace that had been so forcefully snatched away from him. Out here, on Korhal, he was safe, at least so it seemed. What would his parents think, do, if he died in battle?

But then... How could he agree? He belonged in the military--it felt like family to him, it soothed him to know that he still had the power to exact vengeance on the enemy. He looked away, and said, "The war with the Zerg is my life now. Do you not want revenge against the aliens that have killed so many people?"

"No, darling. We're tired of this constant fighting. We want peace--and we want you... to share in that peace with us. We don't want revenge--what's past is past," said his mother.

He looked down, unable to face them, incapable of making a statement that seemed right. How could he talk to them? There was nothing he could say. So he turned away, and looked at the Terran and Protoss bases which were not too far away. "We've met yet another race, one that communicates with thought," he remarked boringly, although the fact was clearly not ennui personified. "You want to look around?"

"No, not really," said Cory's wife, clutching her child. "Military stuff can stay with the military people."

Daniel's worst fear was realized. Already, Cory's wife had lost interest; and this was what, only five minutes into the reunion? They didn't want to know about military life and environment; they wanted to live a normal life, and wanted to keep the horrors and rigid discipline of the warrior's way hidden away from them. To them, that was exactly what Daniel represented. To them, he was an outcast.

Sadly, he turned away from them, as he saw in the eyes and faces of them all that they just came here to live a normal life away from the control of the Confederacy. He left them wordlessly, every moment feeling more internal turmoil and anguish at not being able to associate with them. ((What has the war done to us?)) he queried himself, feeling that something that was vital to him had been ripped away.

He left and attended to his duties, not shedding a tear.

Battle of Moria
It was now a month and a half since the fall of Tarsonis, and three and a half months since the Zerg were first spotted live on Air Los Andares. Confederate military communications frequencies had steadily increased, in line with what Ariel said were their growing fleet strengths. The Sons of Korhal had quickly consolidated its control over various space pirate bands operating in the sector and renamed itself the Terran Dominion under Mengsk's banner. Catching the Confederates off guard and proclaiming its goal the eventual unity of all humanity against the Zerg, the Dominion had asserted control over Brontes, Dylar IV, Halcyon, and Proudwater with many of the resident military willingly breaking away from the now clearly decadent and collapsing Confederacy. It had arisen to become the premier human governmental entity in Koprulu, with Mengsk crowned emperor of what he had decreed was a necessary dictatorship in the face of a much greater evil.

In geostationary orbit over Korhal IV, the metallic-gray Harbinger Fleet drifted in sphere formation, ready to depart at a moment's notice. Not far from them, a division of the golden Protoss Expeditionary Force also lay at rest.

"Admiral," reported the adjutant, "we have intercepted a Morian distress call. The Moria's Chain Home has recently picked up slipstream vectors approaching their planet, ETA twenty minutes. An attack by the Dominion seems imminent unless the Morians stand down. They are not expecting anyone to be able to come to their aid in time, however."

Daniel immediately knew what was up: Emperor Mengsk wanted to assert his complete authority over the region and the best way to do that was to break the Umojan-Morian Combine. Now, there were two things that Daniel could do at this point: he could decide to stay put, and let Mengsk gradually collect all of humanity under his solidified banner, which would do much good in fighting off the Zerg at one point or another; or he could intervene and maybe convince both sides that they could and had to work together despite not being under the same leadership. He opted for the latter.

"Adjutant, send messages ordering our ships to prepare for combat. Set our journey coordinates for Moria, high orbit, and blink us there immediately. We are going to intervene."

"Yes admiral."

Moments later, the window to hyperspace opened up before them and swept through the spherical fleet, shifting them out from their reality into a totally different one. And then the portal closed off, leaving behind no trace of the human fleet.

On board the carrier Pride of Aiur, Ariel picked up the Harbinger Fleet's blink drive signature with alarm. ((According to the observers, the fleet progressing toward Moria is significantly larger than Daniel's fleet. He will need backup if he hopes to save Moria,)) she thought. Simultaneously, the other Protoss in the vicinity had concurred via telepathic communication with one another. A circular window to hyperspace opened up before the carrier, and brought most of the fleet in the direction of Moria.

"Warning: Dominion fleet's ETA is five minutes. Suggest posting all battle stations to code red. Admiral, we've suddenly picked up a new presence in the area," excitedly reported an adjutant aboard the Endymion-class battlecruiser the Kel.

"Does it matter?" came the reply.

Admiral Johnson had the air of a defeated man. He had worked diligently for twenty years climbing the military ladder and had been admiral for only a few short weeks. And now he was about to lose it all, everything his life's work had been aimed at, in the space of mere minutes. He sat lopsidedly in the admiral's seat aboard a bridge with men feeling just as dejected and anxious. He and his Morian Home Fleet weren't going to go down without a fight, though just how much a difference that would make was indisputably small. Moria and Umoja had much smaller initial populations than and had never been as aggressively expansionist as Tarsonis. That meant that over the course of decades the two smaller states became much weaker than the Confederacy. Through treaties, tributes and alliance with each other, the Umojan-Morian Combine had staved off an inevitable defeat.

And now Johnson would be the one remembered as losing the war that sealed Moria's fate, as the Dominion's forces breached the outer edge of the Morian star system and closed in swiftly. All the planet's fifty million people were probably waiting with their breaths held...

"Sir, I think so. A human fleet has warped in through a method we know not about. They badge themselves the Harbinger Fleet. Initial scans indicate they have fifteen battlecruisers, 37 assault frigates and four of a new capital ship class whose role seems to be that of a carrier."

"Ask Chain Home if they had picked up any vectors of entry for such a fleet."

"Sir, I have already done that. The fleet seems to have slipped past our long-range warp travel detectors."

"Open up a link with the new fleet. I want to hear them out at least."

((If they turn out to be friends and can travel faster than Chain Home can detect warp travelers, then maybe they could bring in more reinforcements, and we'd stand a fighting chance.)) Upon realizing this, the admiral suddenly became much more vivacious as adrenaline pumped through his body once again. He eagerly turned to the new portrait of Daniel to await the good news. "Admiral, you've come bearing good news, I presume?" he asked with a smile that covered up how worried he felt just below the surface.

Daniel remained tranquil. "Admiral Johnson. This is Admiral Travincal. Our fleet is ready to join yours in battle against the Dominion."

Johnson was relieved. "Thank goodness! It's about time! Err... not to be condescending but your fleet is kind of small."

"Oh... um, good point. This is all I have, actually," Daniel replied nonchalantly.

"Damn it!" roared the admiral in dismay, falling over his seat and onto the floor. The man was clearly distressed. "Then you better have some awfully good weapons. The fleet we're going up against is twice our size."

It was Daniel's turn to widen his eyes in surprise. "Twice-? We received your distress call a few minutes ago, but you didn't tell us there were that many enemies headed our way!"

"Oh, don't tell me you aren't prepared for this! We have two minutes left!"

"Well, if it's any consolation, we have the ability to warp you out of here. We can get you to Korhal in four minutes, tops."

Ordinarily such shockingly fast transportation speed would have made anyone's jaw drop, and it did for Daniel. But Johnson was in no mood for that. Fast fleet movement could do little to win this particular battle, despite Daniel's earlier exploits against the six separate but far smaller fleets, and they all knew it. And Daniel's fleet simply didn't have the firepower it needed to withstand the Dominion fleet that Johnson suggested was on its way. The Morian Home Fleet had 80 Endymion-class battlecruisers, 270 Nighthawk-class support frigates, and 4000 Banshee-class starfighters. Even compared to that, the Harbinger Fleet was nearly negligible.

For the next two minutes Daniel pondered what strategies he could use against the enemies, while Admiral Johnson continued to feel like a man doomed to defeat. The solemn officials aboard the Hyperion's bridge looked at the hologram table, which displayed Daniel's light blue blips alongside Johnson's dark blue blips. Sarlena silently stared at the populated, brownish world they were currently in high orbit over.

"Daniel, the Dominion fleet has arrived, leaving slipstream at fifty kilometers from our location. Both sides are holding fire. They are hailing the Kel."

"Onscreen!"

The portrait of the balding General Duke reappeared, this time with even more medallions attached to his suit than when Daniel had last seen a transmission from him. (By contrast, Daniel had none, because there was no one to give him any.) He stated in a gruff, egotistical voice, "This is General Duke of the Dominion Alpha Fleet. Surrender your ships to my control or you WILL be destroyed."

"Join the conversation." Soon a three-way channel had been established between all three flagships: Daniel's Hyperion, Johnson's Kel, and Duke's repaired-yet-again Norad II. "Hi there, Edmund! Remember me? The one who saved your sorry ass back on Antiga?" Daniel smirked.

That took Edmund by surprise. "The bloody hell are you doing here?"

"What's it look like? Allying with the Umojan-Morian Combine to kick your sorry ass."

The general burst into laughter. "Ha, you want to bully me around? Why don't you take a good look at what you're up against? I strongly advise you to surrender before my men kill you." Daniel whirled around to look at the hologram. A host of brown blips representing the Dominion had appeared, and were deployed in claw formation. As Johnson had said, this new fleet was more than twice the size of the Home Fleet.

"Don't forget who I am. If you continue to strike an aggressive pose against the Combine, you will be sorry."

"Yes, well you may have tricks up your sleeve, it won't be enough to take down my Alpha Fleet, considering it's fifteen times yours. For all your smarts you seem to have forgotten that stratagems keep your fleet from shrinking, but they don't grow your fleet like being the right hand man of an emperor does." Edmund chuckled.

"Don't give me that crap. Last time I fought a major battle my fleet ended up swallowing fleets many times it size."

"Well then, we shall see who comes out on top, yes? Closing time, Daniel."

Daniel turned away from the view-screen and shouted, "OPEN FIRE!"

The next moment all Hell broke loose.

From the Dominion side, the ten Hyperions coalesced swirling reddish energies on the brow of their ships, before firing their Yamato Guns at the Combine's vessels. Instantly, ten Endymion-class battlecruisers erupted and shattered into thousands of pieces of space debris, glowing blue-white before the pitch dark backdrop of space. The battlecruisers then exchanged endless volleys of turbolasers, etching burning craters into each others' meters-thick hulls. Missiles filled up space with their trails of flaming nahqadah as they streaked toward their targets. Countless starfighters of both Wraith and Banshee designation engaged in a dogfight that encompassed the three fleets, the Wraiths' lasers and Apollo missiles tearing into their enemies as the Banshee's own rockets did likewise. The Nighthawk frigates left a trail of automatically firing turbolaser gun platforms in their wake as they rushed to cover blown-apart ship hulls with spare reactive armor plates. From Daniel's Harbinger-class carriers, hundreds upon hundreds of Wraiths took flight. Viking-class craft that had been attached to the surfaces of the Endymions fired a few blasts before opening their wings to take flight of their own accord, firing all the while. Halo rockets and missiles detonated endlessly across the battlefield. Every second hundreds of new explosions caused plumes of fiery air to billow into the void. Whole wings of starfighters of both sides were mercilessly shredded alongside battlecruisers whose hulls had been punctured with immense gaping holes. Shrapnel and blood droplets floated aimlessly through space, forcefully torn away from the rest of themselves.

Aboard the Hyperion, Daniel ordered the adjutant, "Have our forces focus fire on their flagship!"

"Yes sir! Squadron A, focus your fire on the Norad II!" The order was given out, and a full third of Daniel's forces unleashed their volleys at the Norad II. Burst lasers did little damage to the vessel. Turbolasers lanced across the targeted battlecruiser's hull, but merely succeeded in scratching it like using an eraser to smudge a hole into paper. Wherever the lasers struck, part of the plating vaporized, forming a dense cloud of plastic particles. No beam from the barrage managed to get through. Whatever it was that the ship was plated with, it was proving incredibly resilient to enemy fire. Elsewhere in the battlefield, laser beams were ineffective against the enemy vessels. "Admiral, our ship commanders are reporting minimal damage being done by beam weapons and are converting to using only missiles."

((Damn it! And my strategy this past month was to focus on laser production at the expense of kinetic weaponry.)) "Use our missiles, then!"

As a handful of missiles impaled, a massive gap formed along the ceiling of the ship. A tokamak within gave out, and suddenly the ship was converted to a blindingly brilliant topaz fireball.

"Sir, General Duke is hailing us--"

"What-? He isn't dead yet? Onscreen!" That moment his ship was rocked by several missiles impacting, throwing him off balance.

"Ship hull integrity at 80 percent and holding!"

The portrait of the general showed up on the viewscreen. He was smiling very wickedly, or so Daniel thought. "So that was your trick? Attack the flagship? Pooh! As if I'd be stupid enough to Tell you which ship I'm on. Go figure."

At that moment Daniel realized what was going on. Duke wasn't even with this fleet. He was back home, directing the battle from afar via ansible.

Daniel turned to look at the hologram and found the status of the battle dismaying. Daniel had been pursuing a conservative strategy, keeping his vessels within a sphere of ships that was the Combine's fleet, and so had suffered few casualties. The Combine's vessels, however, had suffered two losses for every one that the Dominion took, and were losing ships and starfighters at a rapid pace.

"Adjutant, hail admiral Johnson."

"Admiral! What's your backup plan? We need a backup plan!" the man said the moment the link was established.

"Wait up, I do have a plan. You are determined to save Moria, yes?"

"Of course."

"Then prepare your ships for warp transit. You only need to give us temporary control of your engines and gravitic drives."

"Wait a minute - we're retreating? This IS Moria; there's nowhere to retreat!"

"Well you'll just have to wait to fight another day, won't you?"

"Fine. Adjutant, do as the admiral said. Done."

"Hold on. We're going to get you out of here." Daniel sent a telepathic signal to the blinking drive on board. Immediately a shimmering violet window to hyperspace opened up into a circle. Then suddenly it collapsed, dissipating entirely. The fleet had lost its ability to blink out of harm's way. And harm was coming its way. One minute into the battle and the Combine had lost nearly a third of its vessels already.

"What happened?" Johnson demanded.

"NOTHING! NOTHING HAPPENED!!!"

"IS THAT GOOD OR BAD!?!"

"WHAT DO YOU THINK!?!"

"Oh damn it! Then we shall fight to the end!"

((((Ariel, wherever you are, now might be a good time to show yourself,)))) Daniel thought desperately as another explosion rocked his ship.

"Ship hull integrity at 60 percent and holding! We have minor breaches to starboard! Admiral, General Duke is hailing us and demanding us surrender control of our ships to him."

"Ignore him!" An Endymion battlecruiser focused its main laser turret array at an enemy Valkyrie and unleashed its barrage. The bolts of brilliant red energy slashed at the frigate en masse but stalled across its incredibly resistant hull plating. Next to the Hyperion, the Flannum's Legacy detonated in a blinding fireball as enemy lasers struck into the ship.

"Admiral, we have multiple contacts with the Protoss Expeditionary Fleet!"

((Thank goodness they have come!)) Daniel turned to look at the hologram and saw that a handful of golden blips had appeared, right in the middle of the fray. The Protoss immediately broadcast in human language across the entire communications spectrum so that everyone would hear their ultimatum: "We are the Protoss. You will make peace with each other. Resistance is futile."

To which General Duke replied, "We are the Dominion. You have violated Dominion space and must either surrender control of your ships or face destruction."

To which the Protoss replied, "The young are ever so insolent."

Daniel activated a viewscreen so that he could watch the unfolding battle. A solid golden carrier stood resplendent in space and over a hundred interceptors blossomed forth, lashing at the Dominion forces with the bluish spheres of photon torpedoes. Any Wraith the torpedoes struck immediately vanished into a cloud of brilliant debris, whereas laser beams and even missiles impacted harmlessly across the golden starfighters' deflector shielding. Only under intense concentrated fire from many attacks did the shields of only a few of them give out. In this way they quickly cleared the neighboring region of the startled Dominion starfighters.

Beside the carrier were six golden needleships, their three thin, long legs bundled together around their solitary ion cannon. Immediately they fired endless beams of energy so concentrated one could see their paths from the side. The ion cannons flashed across the sky, brilliant white lines of obliteration. No matter what evasive action the starfighters' pilots took, any that the needleships decided to strike at were instantly flash-vaporized. One frigate, which had shrugged off hundreds of hits from Combine lasers and turbolasers, gave out in five seconds and detonated under fire from a single ion beam which had gone right through the ship and out the other end. The needleship then dragged its deadly beam across the skies, hunting for more targets and vaporizing all it touched. Other frigates likewise detonated shortly after ion cannons slashed across them, easily burning right through the thick plating and burning holes into the delicate fusion reactors on board.

Also present was a solitary golden dreadnought, resembling a giant flying saucer significantly larger than a battlecruiser. At the center of the saucer was a beaming device surrounded by ten ion cannons, all pointing inward toward it. The ion cannons lit up simultaneously, and the beaming device glowed breathtakingly prettily. The next moment the focused beam of the ion cannon array had struck out at an oblique angle at a Dominion battlecruiser. In a split second, it had cleanly cut through the vessel, causing them to instantly split into white-hot halves that then promptly erupted into spectacular fireballs. The armor gave away as if it didn't even exist; the ion beam cut through the ship like a knife cuts through butter. A second later, the ion cannon array fired again, its super-intense ray delivering the same fate to a second ship as it had given to the first. Like all the other Protoss vessels, the dreadnought's shielding easily deflected any threat directed its way.

The Dominion vessels abruptly stopped firing, turned and fled back the way they came using their by comparison painstakingly slow gravitic drives. The combined Terran-Protoss fleet tagged along right after them, none of them firing any more.

General Duke sent out on a basic frequency, "What is it you want?" Daniel could tell from the somewhat toned-down haughtiness that the big man had been humbled. The Protoss set up a four-way channel.

"We merely want you to stop fighting each other," came the transmission from the Protoss Pride of Aiur. It was Ariel's voice.

"Yeah, well, you've persuaded us all right," muttered Edmund.

"Humanity should work together to defeat its common threat."

"That's exactly what Emperor Mengsk wants to do!"

"True, but only after he FIGHTS and crushes all resistance to his rule. And as we all know, a tyranny is highly unstable. That would only be helping the Zerg."

"I believe that what Mengsk wants to accomplish is right."

"And you also believed that you could walk all over Moria. Things just don't turn out the way they apparently would. Here, why don't the three of you make friends, and we'll moderate?"

"Well, Johnson, I can be quite sure that our two groups are now in an alliance, aren't we?" asked Daniel.

"You bet."

"I cannot speak for the emperor. I also believe that it will take a while for him to decide if, when, and how we are to establish a truce. You will just have to wait."

"You must come together in the end. As a sign of good faith we hereby are establishing a blinking drive on one of your ships," said Ariel.

"WHAT!?! How can you do that?" Daniel exclaimed. Giving the enemy a blinking drive could very easily make matters worse.

"You've done what? Oh no, you've tampered with my ship!" protested Edmund rather helplessly.

"Would you rather we blew it to smithereens?" Ariel asked rhetorically, to which Edmund shut up.

"But Ariel, why?!?"

"It is not every day that the Protoss encounter a new technology we have not developed ourselves. The hyperspace inhibitor is a marvel and certainly has important strategic consequences. We have now assimilated it."

"Oh no you did not just steal our hard-earned techs!" exclaimed Edmund in dismay.

"Think of this as a just trade: the blinking drive is far more useful to you than the hyperspace inhibitor is to us. Besides, we do have the advantage of being the premier race around here. I suggest you don't try to get on our bad side," Ariel threatened. Edmund gulped, then terminated the connection.

"Ariel... why?"

"Well, one way to help facilitate a truce and mutual cooperation is to present a gift to the other party. Surely you must know of that psychology?"

"Damn it, Ariel, I've met Mengsk before, and he isn't that kind of person! He is crafty and will certainly see in the blinking drive a way to continue fighting. Now he's going to do what any sensible person in his position would do: congregate all his fleets together into one large Imperial Fleet with the blinking drive at its core."

"There's really no need to worry, Daniel. You trust in our ability to protect you, do you not? Our fleets are many, many magnitudes more powerful than all the forces of the Dominion combined."

"No, thank you, I would rather trust in myself and my own abilities and commands. You know, it's the human way of doing things."

"Right. I see you want to have something to help protect your fleet against the relatively overwhelming might of the Dominion fleets. That's fine. With this new hyperspace inhibitor technology added to our arsenal, we figured that it is okay to give you another gift. You shall now have your personal Protoss guardian starship."

Right before his eyes Daniel saw a new ship come out of hyperspace. Easily larger than the Hyperion, the Guardian too was a golden vessel, but shaped like a butterfly, with a long and slender main section and two symmetric pairs of what could only be called the starship's wings.

((((How do I control this thing?))))

((((Telepathically, as usual. You already know how to use the Guardian. Just tell it to do what you want it to do, and it will do it. We have also already applied the recently assimilated interdiction technology into the Guardian, so that now you can use it to trap ships in normal space indefinitely.))))

Daniel tested a command, ((((Bubble shield!))))

The Guardian's wings shifted position. Something happened which could not be seen, and the next moment Daniel's fleet was wrapped from top down in the translucent, incredibly resilient spherical shield, with a radius of up to two hundred kilometers, that gave this ship class its name. At the same time, he felt something warm swell up within him. He looked down and saw his Khaydarin amulet shining a resplendent rich violet.

"I can get used to this..." Daniel said to himself with a smile.

Daniel spoke to the adjutant, "All right, everything resolved here. I want us back home immediately and a report of battle damage written within the hour." He stood up and left the room, just as the space around him flickered as they entered hyperspace.

Loomings
After the confrontation, the Harbinger Fleet had most of its ships still functional - and repairs had already been initialized by the engineering crews on each of the vessels. But at the moment, whatever functionality the human ships had were absolutely useless.

Daniel seated at the admiral's seat in the well-fortified, well-lit bridge, a hologram of his fleet in right front of him. On the far wall was the main viewscreen, depicting the spectacle happening outside.

His ships were arrayed in wall formation, all of them pointed at a Wraith starfighter in close proximity to a solitary golden vessel, one that looked remarkably like a titanic angel. Interspersed around the fleet's attacking starships were Wraith starfighters, not moving but merely hovering in space where they were. From each of the Wraiths' three burst laser turrets came intermittent bursts of intense light; from the many large turrets on the starships shot forth the much more powerful turbolasers as well as complements of Halo rockets and Apollo missiles. The brilliant red spheres of Yamato Guns shot at their targets as well. An endless barrage of explosions filled the center of the screen and all around the golden vessel, as a perfectly spherical shield continued to flicker with a light blue glow around the target ship, protecting the otherwise vulnerable wraith from all harm. Out from the surface of this shielding erupted the explosions of innumerable weapons detonations, causing glowing white and yellow fireworks all around it. The two vessels was not returning fire of any kind; the golden one seemed to have no ability other than to generate its many-kilometer-wide shield.

And yet, that one shield had the entire Harbinger Fleet stumped. Neither laser nor explosive could get through, and the stalemate had been ongoing for a full minute now.

"Admiral, the Guardian reports its shielding have only been drained by 15 percent. At this rate it will take our combined fleet another five minutes to break through," said the adjutant.

"Understood. If the Guardian's shielding ever falls to below 10 percent I want all fire on it to stop immediately. Judging by its shield capacity, there's no telling how much damage we will do to our prize if we let a single hit get through that shield, and we do not have the technology to repair or reproduce any part of that vessel," ordered Daniel. He had already lost interest in watching the attrition continue - it was quite evident that this solitary ship - HIS ship - would be a tide-turner in any battle to come. If he were to engage all of Mengsk's fleets now, he could easily destroy them all in the time it took for them to drain the Guardian of its shields...

The moment Daniel had realized that he would be in command of Guardian he had devised the course of action that had resulted in this. He already knew that a Guardian had tremendous protective powers, but he needed to gauge just how much so in real situations. Even losing a Guardian - which to the Harbinger Fleet was one of a kind - paled in comparison to learning of any weaknesses the Guardian might have, especially since it was possible he may encounter a Protoss fleet led by the Dark Ones. Intrigued by the way Daniel was treating a gift and the most prized ship in his fleet, Ariel stood mute on the bridge.

Daniel turned to Christopher. "Imagine that this Guardian and its Wraith is an enemy vessel. In this time that one Wraith could have put one or two Valkyries out of commission, and in another five, it could knock out all three of our Hyperion-class battlecruisers. I want these shields drained in less than five minutes. See if you can come up with any effective strategy."

Christopher nodded, then spoke into his comlink, "Christopher speaking. All vessels hold your fire. Squadron One, on my mark, fire one nuke, set to detonate right in front of the bubble shield, then take evasive maneuvers... Mark!"

"You're going to use a nuke?" Daniel asked, alarmed.

"Against that kind of resilience, it's our best hope."

From the bow of the Flannum's Legacy shot out a warhead. It exploded, sending vaporized, hotter-than-a-star metallic fragments through space in all directions. Roughly half of them struck the quantum shielding, causing the bubble shield to suddenly go entirely white - as if there were a temporarily new star right there. The hundreds of other fragments came right back at the assembled fleet, which quickly picked up the projected paths of each fragment and maneuvered themselves to avoid taking damage. One palm-sized fragment - it would be more accurate to describe it as a spray of energy - slightly touched one moderately damaged Valkyrie on the side. The next instant the entire ship had been vaporized into a similar but much larger spray of energy, drifting aimlessly and lifelessly in space.

"We lost a Valkyrie," reported the adjutant.

"You just can't compare the chemical energy with nuclear power," stated Sarlena.

"How much damage did we do?"

"The nuclear blast did not penetrate. The Guardian's power reserves have fallen to 70 percent."

"Good God!"

"Yeah, it seems this 'angel ship' is indestructible, doesn't it? Only fifteen percent. Fire two more nukes."

"Bombs away." Another two nukes launched toward their target, erupting likewise. The bubble shielding flared brilliantly.

"Negative. Still no signs of penetration. The Guardian's power reserves have fallen to 69 percent."

That last number left everyone stunned. "That... barely made a dent," muttered James. It was one thing to think one would need seven nukes to drain such a vessel. It was another matter entirely to think one would need over hundred of them.

"It seems the ship's automated response and resistance is unbelievably swift," remarked Daniel. "In the future, if we were to engage an enemy fleet with such vessels we will need to deploy seven nukes to each of them and detonate simultaneously if we are to have any hope of success."

"Why don't we try using Shockwave?" asked Christopher.

"Good idea; let's do it, Chris!"

"Chris again. Bring up that Explorer science vessel we have, and deploy a Shockwave device." On the viewscreen, one such vessel rapidly propelled itself up to get a good view of the Guardian, then released what clearly resembled a missile. Only in this case, it detonated a little distance away from the target vessel, releasing an expanding ring of destabilizing quantum energy. For a split second the Guardian's quantum shielding became an opaque light blue as the shockwave traversed the surface area of the bubble shield. "Results?"

"Guardian's shields down to 62 percent and holding," stated the adjutant.

"All right, hurry up and deploy ten more," ordered Chris. Ten more distortionary eruptions took place right at point-blank to the ship.

"It's just like with the nukes, sir! Shielding still at 60 percent." Several of the officers groaned in dismay. They were now clearly out of ideas.

"Everyone, this is Daniel. Cease firing. Chris, let's try a cloaked warhead. Perhaps this is a ship without adequate detection capabilities." Daniel then turned to Ariel. "Fine ship," he commended, though the compliment was really intended for the Protoss which he knew could listen to him through her.

"Why thank you," Ariel replied with a gracious smile.

"Tell me, if the Protoss have THAT kind of power, why can't they clear out all the Zerg?"

"I thought I told you this before; there are simply too many of them, and they are spread too thinly for us to hunt them down effectively."

"The things I have seen today... I mean, I knew ever since I saw the Protoss over Antiga that they were powerful, but this... this is entirely imbalanced."

"How do you say it? War is not fair."

"Yeah, well I still hope to make a substantial contribution to the war. I can't do it if, as I'm aware of, you aren't willing to give us more of your technology, and even if you did, like you said, it wouldn't help to simply redistribute forces."

"And so you're planning on doing something?"

"Exactly. Now, ever since Antiga's downfall I have been aware of the tremendous power of the psi emitter. I've also figured out a way to reverse the programming on such devices so that they repel, rather than attract, the Zerg. I don't know just how extensive its effects used in this way may be, however. Problem is, we don't know enough about the magic we're casting."

"If you had wanted to learn of that information, I believe you are in luck. Right before we sky-blasted Chau Sara with a Dreadnought, we located an installation on its perpetual far side away from the main planet, one that goes by the name of Flannum. Sensing that the place held significant potential, we used our polarion beams to assimilate all electronic data contained within the installation, encrypted or otherwise."

"Great, well then at least we will have access to what we both believe to be important information regarding psi emitters. And have you cracked the encryption?"

"There isn't much to decrypt... at least, not when you're - that is, we - are using a polarion beam. It can perfectly analyze any physical object that stores data of any kind, and it was immediately obvious which part of that physical data was the encryption key. By the time we stored in our data banks the bland data had already been retrieved."

"Well, so much for biological encryption. What have you got?"

"So... What's the progress on Project Alone?" Daniel asked Christopher.

"Wait wait wait, what's Project Alone?" interrupted Sarlena before Christopher could begin.

"Chris, why don't you explain," Daniel brushed the question aside.

"Right, so in the aftermath of the fall of Mar Sara, the Sons of Korhal managed to infiltrate Jacobs Installation and retrieve a pair of data discs. In effect, they were dual experiments that ran in parallel. One was about the psi emitter, which could send specific vibes through deep space, amplifying the signals of telepaths. These would generally be lust and desire, or terror and repulsion. Remember two months ago, when we first encountered their use on Antiga?"

"Yeah," said Sarlena, her interest piqued, while Raynor subsconsciously stopped eating his food to listen.

"Well, that's that. The other data disc holds information on how to build, use, and predict results of a psi disruptor."

"What's that?" queried Raynor.

"Right, so the psi disruptor does the near, but not exact, opposite of the psi emitter. The original plan envisioned was to create small box-like devices like the psi emitter, and to use them to prevent the Zerg from showing up--"

"Wait, how the Heck did the Confederacy know that the Zerg could float through space, so early?" exclaimed Raynor, anger swelling up.

They looked at each other, not knowing what to say. It Did seem really weird...

"Yeah, well they did, and then they tested the device--"

"But... That doesn't make any sense at all! How can you test whether or not the device works, if the Zerg wouldn't be going anywhere in the first place?" exclaimed Raynor.

"Well, you see, there were actually several experiments. They first created a psi emitter and wondered if it'd attract anybody. They put it on an abandoned and distant planet code-named Braxis and activated the device, with a handful of people stationed there to act as the welcoming committee. Needless to say, none of them survived," explained Raynor.

"Because they all got killed by the Zerg," realized Sarlena with sadness.

"There were so many of them, and the Confederacy really became frightened at that point. They wanted to create a device that would repulse the Zerg away--"

Daniel interrupted, "and instead of doing it the correct way, which was to give a second programme to the psi emitter that sent off repulsive and terrorizing vibes."

"Instead," continued Christopher, "they thought the psi disruptor was the way. So they set up another test, this time on Chau Sara--"

"The planet we've lost touch with two years ago!" realized Sarlena.

"--And they ran an experiment using both psi emitter and psi disruptor. Problem was, the psi disruptor didn't work as intended--it could only keep the Zerg away by a few miles, while the psi emitter attracted some Zerg from throughout all of deep space. And spaceborne weapons can hit beyond a few miles, so the psi disruptor and its vicinity were swiftly destroyed. The Zerg went on to claim the planet, and we've lost contact with it ever since."

"Such a well-disguised thing, this whole mess!" shouted Raynor as he banged the table.

"Please calm down, Jim," said Daniel. "So the psi disruptor didn't work. But they did notice that it caused Zerg within a space of a few miles to become disorganized, some to even fight each other. So they established another test on Mar Sara--"

"The whole collection of Confederate planets they've turned into testing grounds!" roared Raynor.

"That's indeed how the Zerg got on this planet, and that's also why Air Los Andares got thrown off air the moment the Zerg showed up on the television screen. Remember?" Sarlena and Christopher nodded.

"So here comes retribution."

"If it involves another experiment, I'm not for it," declared Raynor.

"The whole of Koprulu Sector is under attack and you want to tell me that you won't see this experiment through?" Christopher exclaimed, with anger in his voice. "You'll doom everyone!"

"No--the experiments have doomed everyone," Raynor returned.

"Yes, but they're also our only chance of victory over the Zerg! You've seen their numbers, their ferocity, their technology! Fighting them head-on isn't the way to go!" Daniel challenged.

"So the plan," continued Christopher, "was to build a massive psi disruptor on this other planet the Protoss have given us, which we've done already. It's an ice world, and the Protoss once had a colony there, known as Khyrador. The place is always caught inside a massive planetwide blizzard, which will make it nearly impossible to find anything there. The psi disruptor, once activated, should be able to reach across worlds, much like the psi emitter. But this time, it'll affect all Zerg, rather than just the one percent or so that are lured by the small psi emitters. Once it's built, we need only defend it, and the Zerg, leaderless, will be useful."

"How do you know that the Zerg can't continue to fight without a leader?" asked Sarlena, who was starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

"Because my nightmares have shown me that the Zerg is controlled by one Overmind," announced Daniel at last. "And the experiment on Chau Sara proved my point."

Raynor and Sarlena stared at Daniel. For a long while. "What else are you not telling us?" asked Sarlena.

"Well, one is that Jaxtor and I are also working on Project Red Herring," said Daniel, trying to throw it out as if it were nothing.

But the others didn't take it as nothing. "What the heck is it this time?" asked Christopher, who had evidently not known of this either.

"The counterpart to Project Alone: a massive psi emitter, on an uninhabited planet close to Khyrador, which will attract almost all Zerg in the galaxy to the one planet, which we hope is close enough to the psi disruptor for its activation to catch almost the entire Zerg Swarm off guard," Daniel explained.

Sarlena shook her head at this, and wanted to back out of the conversation, having lost her appetite. "May God have mercy on you," she told Daniel.

Battle of Braxis
Another month had passed since the ignominious defeat of General Duke's Alpha Fleet by the Protoss. Mengsk had done what Daniel thought a crafty leader would have done: instead of dispersing navies across the worlds under his control so that they were more or less equally protected relative to how important and populated they were, he clustered all his forces together into the newly christened Imperial Fleet. After having amassed a powerful fleet, he had instructed his new Grand Admiral Edmund Duke to scare the remaining Confederates on Tyrador into surrendering peacefully, and Duke had of course delivered. The new Imperial Fleet was thus stationed at the place where Mengsk had finally defeated the Confederacy: Tyrador. Mengsk however seemed to have taken to heart the warning that the Protoss had given him; he did not make any more aggressive moves on the Umojan-Morian Combine.

Daniel's base had continued to expand, though of course not as quickly as an impatient Daniel would have liked. There were only twelve carriers so far, which could hold 1728 Wraiths in total. Daniel currently had twice as many Wraiths, which was a good ratio to have.