The Hyperion and the Beetle were parking in a neutral space after taking a trip to Deadman’s port for some more resources. For now the ships were waiting for their female commander to set eye on a new target.
And where was the leader now?
In the bridge of the Hyperion, Jean was facing an unexpected ancient Nerazim protoss.
“State your request, protoss.” Jean ordered quietly as she sat on her chair. In front of her was an old dark templar. His skin was pale and his cloth and armor were stained. Jean knew from the memory she received that he was Zeratul. Zeratul was old, even by the protoss standards. He had been present since the zerg first appeared and invaded Aiur. The templer was, to a degree, responsible for the fall of Aiur because he accidently leaked Aiur’s coordinates to the overmind as he assassinated one of his underlings. As far as Jean knew he had been travelling through the stars for redemption of his sin.
Her memory ended there. She had no idea why Zeratul was here.
Zeratul was not thrilled to be here. At first he came aboard this ship to find an old friend of his, James Raynor, and warn him about the dark future and what he had to do to stop it, but the ship that once belonged to his friend now laid in the hand of some girl he never met before. Zeratul planned on getting out of there and learn more about the terran society to see if he could locate Raynor when 8 auto turrets rose from the ground and aimed at him. The direction of the weapons told him he was detected and he knew from experience the gauss rounds could penetrate his plasma shield before he could disable them all. Four goliaths painted in pure black walked in and aimed at him. Zeratul didn’t resist because he didn’t knew who he was against, and he was escorted to this girl in front of him now.
“Greeting, terran. I am Zeratul. I seek a man named James Raynor.” Zeratul said carefully. He didn’t want any unnecessary trouble.
Jean tilted her head. “Hello Zeratul. I know who you are. Unfortunately I can not help you. Jim Raynor is dead.”
“WHAT?” Zeratul roared. “Who killed him? Who committed such atrocity?” Apart from being the key to fight the darkness, Raynor known for his bravery on Aiur and was a dear friend to a lot of protoss, including Zeratul himself. Apart from the friendship, Zeratul learned from the prophecy that Raynor was the key to winning Kerrigan over, who was then the key to defeating Amon. If Raynor was dead...Zeratul hated to imagine how the queen of blades would react to the death of her lover.
“I did.” Jean replied quietly with no change of expression.
For a second Zeratul was standing meters away from Jean. The next second he was on top of Jean. His green warp blade was close to Jean’s neck. Jean’s expression didn’t change.
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“From what I know,” Jean said quietly, ignoring the weapon that could potentially end her life. “you came here to find Raynor. Unfortunately Raynor is very much dead right now. Therefore the best thing for you to do is cut the losses and find someone to replace Raynor. Someone like me.”
Zeratul was unmoved. “You’re a fool. You have no idea what you’ve done.” Jean’s request was ignored. “And now I shall avenge my friend’s demise…”
“Don’t bother. You can’t kill me.” Jean said confidently and for some reason Zertal hesitated. “But if you make a move I promise you will not leave this ship alive. If you die, whatever quest you’re after dies as well. Make up your mind.”
Zertal faltered. He wasn’t afrad of death. What he was afraid of was not being able to stop the dark one from consuming the world. The girls words were brutal, but logically speaking she made a good point. There was no point in killing her and taking the risk if he could get her support. No need to be enemies if they could be friends. Still, Zeratul had trouble forgetting about the death of his friend and move on to work with the killer. The two were close ever since Raynor helped holding off the swarm on Aiur. Zeratul hesitantly put down his blade and moved back to a safe distance.
“I’m Jean. Jean Turner.” Jean straightened her body in her chair and casually introduced herself.
“I came here because the dark one is rising.” Zeratul went straight to the topic.
“You mean Amon.” Jean cut him off. Zeratul frowned at the surprise.
“You know about Amon?” The dark templar asked suspiciously.
“I have heard some news from an informant inside the tal’darim.” Jean lied, but Zeratul believed her. The tal’darim knew about Amon all along as they treated the xel’naga as gods and were brought off Aiur by Amon himself. It was reasonable Jean knew about Amon from that source.
“Then you know the power of Amon? The prophecy showed me the future. Only the queen of blades can defeat Amon and save everyone. Thus I came to Raynor for help.”
“Why do we need the queen of blades?” Jean asked. “Drop fifty nukes on the dark one and he will burn just like everything else.”
Zeratul shook his head. “Without Kerrigan Amon will control the swarm. He will be unstoppable with the zerg behind his back. In the future I saw Amon wiping out the terran and then overrunning the best of the protoss. We didn’t stand a chance.” He struggled to recover from the painful memory. So many protoss died for nothing. Selendis. Artanis. Uran. What was left of the protoss race crumbled under the infinite swarm. Jean merely looked at the old protoss.
Jean silently went over the info she knew. She had been crippling Amon’s future forces. The mercenaries belonged to her now. The tal’darim were starting to be taken over by Nyon. Moebius forces and the hybrids were maimed. If everything went right then when Amon came back to life all he had left would be the Golden Armada and the swarm.
Jean could easily say they wouldn’t be a challenge...but then she would be lying.
The Golden Armada was the peak of protoss technology. It consisted of firepowers that could burn down planets and wipe out armies in seconds. Even if Jean had the Death Fleet to deal with the Golden Armada, which was still a question, the zerg swarm that for multiple times defeated the Golden Armada would still be a problem. Zeratul was right. If Jean did nothing then eventually endless zerg swarm would overrun any opposition in the sector.
“What can I do?”
“Win Kerrigan over. It’s the only way.” Zeratul said before disappearing into the shadows.