Eyes of a Tragedy

She had been tempted to finally follow up on one of those Fandom invitation beacons. But no. Not today. Today, Kerrigan had... more important plans. She'd shelve this one for next time.

"I have some unfinished business with the Dark Templar Matriarch, Raszagal," she mused, glancing down at the planet below through the thick surface of the viewscreen. Her heel tapped against the floor. "I'll need to steal her from her tribe before we can finally assault the Overmind on Char. However, her defenders will not simply allow us to take her away."

She glanced over her shoulder at Duran.

"The pylon clusters are generating some sort of electromagnetic field that is preventing our flyers from maneuvering," he supplied, frowning. "We won't have any air support at all."

That... wasn't good. She would've sent mutalisks and overlords if she'd had the chance.

"Then we'll need some new strategy."

Thankfully, Duran stepped up. "Perhaps it would be best if we staged some kind of diversion, my Queen, and claimed the Matriarch during the confusion."

Kerrigan nodded. "What did you have in mind?" she drawled, turning.

"The Protoss outpost of Talematros is built upon a large mesa and is essentially impregnable to ground attacks." Duran traced the lines of the city on the map before him with one finger. "However, Talematros is fueled and supported by a number of adjacent pylon clusters." He stabbed at the area in question. "I believe that if we can cause a surge within those pylon clusters, we can cause Talematros' power grids to overload. The resulting explosion will be the perfect cover for retrieving the Matriarch."

This... was not as wasted an opportunity as she had feared it would be. A smile spread across Kerrigan's features. She paced towards the map.

"Clean, simple, devious," she mused. "I like it." Her eyes snapped up to Duran. "Call in River. Get her out there."

Duran blanched. "My Queen, I think it would be best if I--"

"Bullshit," she said, "We obviously need your tactical brain up here."

With a frown, Duran bowed. "My Queen. I will alert River immediately."

"Good," she said, and flicked her eyes sideways, towards another screen. "Cerebrate. You'll be offering support while River does her thing. Get to it."

[[ for her who is here. also, kerrigan: now has her own metal song ]]

Kerrigan had heard rumblings for quite some time now. Since before Char, actually, somewhere in transit from Braxis. Still, she was a little surprised to hear that the Protoss had broken up their fledgeling alliance quite this soon.

Sitting on the thick flesh floors of the overlord she'd commandeered for this mission, Kerrigan tilted her head at the communication eye. It might be vital that she act soon...

"...prejudices have driven them to perpetuate the Conclave's sins against us. Even now, Aldaris and his loyalist templar forces are preparing to attack our Citadel." The Matriarch, Raszagal, at work. Nice.

"I can scarcely believe this." That was Artanis's voice once more. The young Protoss had been doing well in the ranks. "As if the Zerg were not enough! Matriarch, are you certain of this?"

"All too certain, young templar." Raszagal's creaky old whisper. "Executor, as Matriarch of the Dark Templar and custodian of this world, I hereby order you to terminate Judicator Aldaris, and quell this untimely uprising without delay! There will be no dissent among us while the Zerg are poised--"

Kerrigan pulled the plug on the comms. She didn't need to hear anything else. Aldaris, the little self-righteous creep, had obviously gone snooping around where he shouldn't have. Oh well.

It was nice while it lasted.

With a single command, the tiny Zerg ship disentangled itself from the Protoss war fleet and drifted, invisibly, to the planet below.

"May Adun forgive us." In New Antioch, Artanis wept.

[ some dialogue taken from StarCraft: Brood War mission 7, 'The Insurgent' ]