:What on Aiur is that?:

Artanis blinked, and looked about from the windows of his scout, wondering what his escort was speaking about. :Where?:

:There,: his scout indicated with a mental picture. Artanis blinked, and looked down, aligning landmarks with the picture his escort had just projected into his mind. Sure enough, there it was, below them-some sort of large, mysteriously floating creature, with several other winged organisms flapping about it.

Artanis recognized it from the briefing he'd been sent. :It's an overlord. Transport, lieutenant, and scout for the Zerg forces. The things flapping about it are their flying combatants...most likely escorting it somewhere.: Artanis and his escort watched the being closely, as it lumbered its way across the terrain, the little ones about it circling.

:They're attacking something,: his escort exclaimed. Artanis set his computer screen to focus on the Zerg a few miles below him, and zoomed in. Sure enough, the mutalisks were pounding away at something on the ground, something he couldn't quite make out.

Speaking what was on his mind, his escort spoke again. :That's funny. I'm registering Protoss life-signs, but I don't see anything.:

:Well, let's move to intercept the Zerg,: Artanis commanded, and the two scouts swooped down to help the Protoss unit.

The closer they came, the more they realized just how wounded the strange Protoss was. It flickered in and out of sight, and was covered in bluish blood, its shields were obviously reduced to nothing.

Artanis saw a few things that appeared to be simply flying mouths heading straight toward his ship, and he banked his scout hard to the right. The things went right about him, and missed him completely.

And slammed into his escort.

The second scout went up in a puff of blue smoke and greenish acid, as Artanis moved in to engage the mutalisks that were just now breaking off from attacking the stranger. He powered up his missle systems, and, as the overlord started to float away, he picked off the mutalisks, one by one.

Artanis doubled around, and a few more volleys destroyed the overlord as well. Strange, Artanis thought. That's more organic material than the briefing said there would be. It must have been carrying units.

Slowly, Artanis descended by the damaged unit. It was clearly dying, and Artanis set his scout down, quickly hopping out of it to try to render some assistance.

He recoiled almost involuntarily as he finally realized what it was.

It was a dying dark templar.

Obviously, he was so hurt that he was unable to concentrate hard enough to produce his cloaking field. Either that, or he simply didn't want to put the energy into it, now that the threat was over. Slowly, he lifted his head, and spoke to Artanis.

:thank...you...: he said, every word obviously difficult to mind-send. :i...am Srajanar...scout, for...my brethren...:

:Scout?: Artanis retorted. :You know your kind is not allowed on Aiur...:

:yes...: he replied. :but...we still...watch...one day, hope...to come...home...:

Artanis felt a twitch inside him. This dark templar obviously knew how to pull some strings, in case of detection. He was enemy...and yet...he was still Protoss, wasn't he?

Kneeling down beside the wounded scout, Artanis took out his crude medical kit. :What can I do to assist you?: he asked, attempting to keep his tone neutral.

:beyond...assistance...: the scout answered. :yet...i will...help you...:

:Help me?: Artanis responded, fighting to keep his tone from becoming indignant. :What aid can you offer me?:

:first...know, that overlord...deposited a drone...five miles back...: the dark one croaked into his mind. :it has begun...formation, of a new...hive cluster...:

Artanis felt his adrenaline rise, fear and excitement, both at the same time. He would have to stop this infestation, of course...but he was still being spoken to, and thus, he hushed his own thoughts to listen to Srajanar's.

:second...within, this key...lies the coordinates of...our stockpile...of corsairs, on shakuras...: The dark templar shook, as he snapped a small cube from his belt, holding it out toward Artanis. :they will...assist you...in your efforts against...the zerg...and they will not be missed...:

Artanis bit off a sarcastic mental remark, once again reminding himself not to be overconfident. Perhaps these corsairs would be of some use to him, after all...and so, he slowly accepted the cube from the dying Protoss scout.

:farewell, brother...and may the light never go out on aiur...: In a puff of blue smoke, the templar dissolved into the air.

Artanis stood up, slightly dazed. If the conclave ever found out about what had just transpired, he would most likely be executed...but they didn't have to find out, now did they?

He smiled inside, as he clutched the cube in his palm. Then, he hurried back to his ship, and sped off toward his main base.

Setting down on the landing pad of his nexus, his communications droid immediately flew to his side. Artanis had a command already set for it, and quickly ordered the construction of a stargate.

As the building warped in, Artanis personally moved out to the site. Once the transfer was complete, Artanis pushed the cube into the appropriate place in the controls of the stargate, and ordered that these new aircraft would be warped in from wherever the cube pointed.

As the first one came out, Artanis met it in his scout. The corsair immediately went into evasive maneuvers, not expecting to see someone from Aiur. Artanis quickly sent a communication to the new craft.

:Settle, brother. I am not here to fight you. One of your brethren was saved this morn by my hand, and he gave me the coordinates of your place of origin before he died.:

The craft slowly began to stop moving, and circled warily about Artanis' scout. :His name?: the unknown pilot sent.

:Srajanar,: Artanis replied, steadily...and the corsair moved behind him, in a flanking position.

:What do you wish of me, commander?: the pilot sent, next. Artanis smiled again, inside, and set his scout back down at his nexus, the corsair following behind.

:Scout,: Artanis replied. :Srajanar also informed me of a new Zerg hive cluster nearby. Find its location. Oh...and as more of your brethren arrive, please be so kind as to tell them what has happened.:

:Understood, Praetor,: the corsair pilot replied, and flew off into the distance, his sensor systems now pumping information to the central computer of the nexus.

Artanis settled back into his command chair, and started to order the bringing of more of these ships from wherever they came from.

:Zerg overlord found,: came the message from his scouting corsair. :Destroying now.:

Artanis watched intently, wondering what sort of weaponry this craft had. He was mildly disappointed, as some sort of neutron flare bombarded the overlord, doing very minimal damage. The craft was very quick, however, and inexpensive to bring in...and so, he continued to order them built, making one after the other.

His scouting corsair, meanwhile, had sent back information on the location of the Zerg base. A spire was under construction, but, as these corsairs had no ground attack, Artanis contented himself with sending a second one to facilitate in harassing the Zerg overlords. One by one, the lumbering giants fell to the neutron flares of the corsairs.

Shortly, however, several mutalisks emerged from eggs. Artanis, unsure of the odds of four mutalisks against two of these new fliers, retreated them to his base. He cursed mentally, as the corsairs led the mutalisks right to his base.

He was not unprepared, however. The flying Zerg creatures began to attack his mineral workers, but he had a dragoon, as well as several of these corsairs, now, to deal with the threat. He watched in amazement as the corsairs attacked one of the tightly-packed mutalisks, and the ones near it also suffered damage.

Smiling, as he now knew the full extent of these new craft, he sent them back to the Zerg base to harass their overlords more. There, however, his corsairs met with scourge and mutalisks. The corsairs attempted to destroy the scourge before they could hit, but two corsairs will do little to destroy two scourge before they can hit. First one corsair fell, and then the other.

During this time, Artanis had created a robotics facility and a shuttle. He used it to move a probe to the expansion to the south-west of his main base, and began the warp of a nexus there. The Zerg quickly routed six mutalisks to attempt to stop him from expanding, but Artanis was ready for them, with a couple dragoons and several corsairs. The mutalisks fell without much of a fight.

Artanis just continued to call in the new ship he had been blessed with. Once he had a pack of eight, he sent them off again to the Zerg base, hoping the brood had just continued to create air units.

He smiled, inwardly, as he met more scourge and wraiths. This time, the scourge fell with only one hit, and he destroyed the four or so mutalisks defending the zerg base with only one corsair loss. Again, he began to systematically destroy the Zerg overlords, denying whatever cerebrate he faced the control to create more minions. Once all the visible overlords fell to his corsairs, he parked his fliers over the enemy hives, knowing that his opponent would have to hatch new overlords from the larvae there. Meanwhile, he shuttled a probe to all the expansions he knew of on the map, leaving them there as advance warning scouts for any Zerg expansion.

As the overlords hatched from their eggs, the corsairs immediately set into them. Unfortunately for Artanis, the corsairs were unable to destroy all the overlords before a few hydralisks could be started from larvae as well, and the hydralisks soon hatched from their eggs to begin to attack the corsairs.

Artanis began a second expansion on the plateau to the far west, as one of his probes sent information that the Zerg brood was creating a new hatchery to the south of its main base. Artanis thought quickly, and began to load a couple shuttles with dragoons and two reavers, moving them toward the forming hatchery. Meanwhile, he warped in a pylon with his probe, and, as the creep began to expand, a cannon. Just as the cannon arrived, his forces dropped down, quickly destroying the hatchery and the creep colonies attempting to morph into sunken colonies to defend it.

The Zerg was beginning to feel the crunch, and Artanis knew it. These new craft had allowed him to slaughter their overlords, causing them to pour minerals into non-combatant units. On top of that, the Zerg had no expansions to Artanis' two...and Artanis was quickly setting up camp in the base that he had just destroyed. After all, he already had two cannons there.

Continuing his pattern of hunting for stray overlords, Artanis completely dominated the area. The Zerg were creating hydralisks as quickly as possible, and two more expansions to the north of the main Zerg base were spotted by Artanis in an attempt to break out of the containment he had imposed on the broods.

The first expansion, to the north-west of the main zerg base, quickly fell to an assault force of dragoons, templar, and reavers. However, a scouting of the base to the north of the main Zerg base revealed that the brood had shifted most of the hydralisks the broods controlled there to protect its only mining base, as well as creating a couple of sunken colonies for further protection.

Sensing an opening, Artanis quickly loaded up a few shuttles with two reavers, three templar, and three dragoons, and landed them on the Zerg's main base. The few troops there were slaughtered, and the corsairs in the area prevented the Zerg from moving any troops from the expansion it was protecting to intercept the threat. The Zerg buildings fell.

Sensing the futility of taking the area, the Zerg packed up what overlords it still had with what troops it could, and fled.

Artanis settled back into his chair, contentment in his eyes. He hadn't even broken a sweat during this battle...these new ships had completely decimated the Zerg brood.

Then, his long-distance communications line activated. Artanis turned to the crystal, and opened his shields to it, allowing the thoughts it resonated to ring into his mind.

:Artanis. Be advised: recall back to central Aiur imminent. Tassadar has given his life to destroy the overmind, but without its control, the Zerg have gone completely mad, turning on each other as well as us. Evacuation imminent. Gather what troops you can, and return.:

He blinked in surprise, and shock. Aiur has fallen? Even with the destruction of the overmind? Tassadar, dead? Shaking his head, softly, Artanis sent out the order for the corsairs to return to where they came, and everyone else to pack into shuttles to flee his backwater post.