Somewhere close to the momentary zerg protoss border, where recent battles had scarred the land, leaving behind nothing but a sad memory of the original heartwarming sight of Aiur. Craters, dead zergs, and left behind mechanical protoss exoskeletons covered the ground everywhere. Their wearers had long since evaporated in a brave stand against the swarm. Now those devices were laying forgotten on the partly scourged ground.

In the distance across the seemingly endless battlefield a swiftly moving, ghostly form ran over the scenery as if the craters and dead bodies didn't bother its ability to move at all, almost as if it was hovering above the ground weightlessly. The opaque presence at last came to a sudden halt. It might have found something interesting, as it changed direction and headed towards a small smoking wreckage laying in a crater among other things. The ghostly presence flew inside the crater and kneeled next to the thing that seemed to gain its interest. 

Suddenly, the kneeling opaque presence disappeared and a real, physical form of a protoss woman appeared in its place. Her long khala was reaching the ground behind her, in this kneeling position. She was an adept, a specially trained protoss ambusher, equipped with a low range glaive cannon which was capable of shooting out psionic energy disks that were effective against lightly armored targets. Their unique training and equipment allows them to send out a psionical presence using their special ability called psionic transfer which they can use for safe scouting and if the need arises they can teleport to the location of this presence inside a certain range. With such abilities it is no wonder why they were usually used on scouting missions or hit and run operations. 

However, this particular adept hasn't seemed to ambush anyone here. She was looking at a droid which was releasing small quantities of smoke while laying in a smaller crater inside a much larger one. Seeing that the item she was searching for was burrowed half way into the ground the adept quickly began to dig it out of the soil using her bare hands. It was clear that she was in haste as her movements were quick, efficient and tireless. In a few minutes the droid, which now turns out to be a damaged observer have been completely uncovered. The adept looked at the dirty and slightly smoking observer drone with a complicated expression, in the end she still decided to pick it up. 

She focused her mind and sent out another psionic presence to scout the way back to the improvised hiding place they  had found, but this time she also had an observer hugged tightly to her chest. Clearly trying to defend it from any further damage. The opaque presence shot out of the crater and flew in the direction she just came from mere minutes ago. The adept sat in the shadow of the crater one of her eyes wide open watching the sky in search of any zerg scouts in the vicinity, while the other was closed as she controlled the psionic presence sent forward. It's vision was shared with her, otherwise this technique wouldn't provide much use in information gathering.  

The ghostly presence moved tirelessly and soon it was standing in front of a deactivated protoss gate. The building was moderately damaged probably still able to function if the necessary energy was provided. Unfortunately this was not the case with the pylon that was supposed to be its energy source. Said pylon was completely unearthed and crashed into thousand pieces after an unlucky encounter with an angry ultralisk.  The psyonic presence however doesn't seem to care about this, as it hovered up the stairs until it reached a huge impact hole in the side of the construction and jumped into it disappearing in the shadows. With that the adept still hiding in the crater disappeared without a trace and reappeared inside the gate standing in a dark corridor. This corridor of the gate was usually not used, only for structural and engineering maintenance, but desperate times have begun to teach the otherwise prideful protoss to turn towards unorthodox ways if they intended to survive. 

The young protoss girl, barely a woman walked through the silent corridor, only her steps filled the place with any sounds. It was an eery silence if she ever heard one. Even so she walked further carrying the small drone in her arms with a similar devotion as a mother would carry her child. A child, which represented her hope for the future, and in this case, those feelings were likely similar towards said drone. Therefore the adept pushed forward through the dark corridor, ever deeper into the darkness, without pause. Long minutes passed this way, when finally the shine of a dim blue light appeared in the darkness, and soon the form of two zealots sitting by a small portable pylon appeared. They both turned towards the familiar form of the adept and nodded to her appreciatively, they were obviously relieved to see her return, safely.

As the adept walked closer, the dim light had shown another presence in the dark place. The much larger silhouette of a dragoon emerged out of the darkness. Only when you looked at it more carefully could you see that the dragoon was damaged extensively, two of its four legs were entirely missing, while its midsection, where the pilot was contained miraculously remained intact, if not unscratched. The adept walked straight to the dragoon, and kneeled down in front of its circular central part, while still holding onto the observer placing it in her lap. 

A psionic communication channel was created between the four protoss, and a conversation began started by the adept.

-Look, I have found a mostly intact observer... if we manage to repair it, we might just make it back alive! 

Said the young woman, trying hard to contain her emotions, as she shared this fantastic news with her three companions. 

The two zealots of course already realized this, as they saw their friend carrying one into their hideout. However, their comrade imprisoned in the extremely damaged body of a dragoon could not see or hear her arrival. Its sensors were either destroyed or turned off to redirect all  energies for essential life supporting systems. Luckily, the protoss ability to share thoughts freely with the help of the khala still allowed them to communicate without trouble.

The soldier in the dragoon answered in a similarly cheerful way, reacting to those news however, in this case the excitement felt a bit strained. 

-At last some good news! I always believed in you, sister! The boys were simply too overprotective... 

-Don't say that, sis... They were simply worried about me... 

-Aha... Then why don't I see them worrying half as much about me, as they do about you? I am the one who is incapacitated at the moment... 

The two zealots began to fiercely shake their heads in the background signaling to the adept that it was not the case. 

The girl seeing their antics said to her sister locked inside the dragoon. 

-Of course it is not the case, they are also worried for you.

-Oh yes? How so? 

One of the zealots sitting closer to the portable pylon answered.

-It is not because we are not worried Ulli... 

The other zealot decided to finish the sentence as he saw that his friend sitting opposite to him had some trouble finding any believable or acceptable excuse. 

-... it is only because you are that tough. Why should we worry?

Hearing that sentence made the four of them smile a little. Of course, protoss did not have a functioning mouth, but that doesn't mean they couldn't smile anymore. Their eyes could still smile, but more importantly, their psionic connection was more than capable of sharing those sorts of emotions with each other. Because of this, it was clear for all of them, that the mood in the room became warmer.  

The adept girl sensing the cheerfulness in the air continued her speech.

-With the help of the observer, we might be able to find a new exoskeleton to replace this broken one, in a blink of an eye, you will be up and running again.

A low beeping sound was emitted from the body of the dragoon.

It was followed by a chilly silence, which quickly evaporated all the cheerfulness in the air.

Another red light began to blink on the mechanical body of the dragoon, signaling that another energy cell was about to be drained entirely. The thoughts of the girl called Ulli behind the metal containment of the dragoon turned sorrowful which immediately made the other three sad as well, since they were still connected emotionally, and mentally at the time.

-I have told you already... It is over for me...  you are wasting your limited supplies to keep me alive... please... just save yourself-...

-Damn you, Ulli! I have told you, that we don't leave behind comrades! Now shut your trap and let me change your energy cell. We don't need that much power to support these psionic blades anyway... hehe... if the zergs find us we may only use up a small amount before they chew us to the bone anyway... 

-But... you have to be realistic for once... I am no longer-

-I said- BANG!

Sounded a heavy echoing noise from the other end of the corridor. It came from the direction the adept came from a few moments ago. All four of them turned silent, as three of their heads turned sharply towards the direction of the noise.

One of the zealots jumped up to his feet saying through the psionic connection.

-You fool, have you been followed?!

-No...no! I... I looked around carefully, and psionic transfer doesn't even leave behind any trace, nor smell! 

The other zealot quickly covered up the small portable pylon with a thick rag to stop it from shining and betraying their position to the enemy. While the other two argued.

-Then what is this Uzruh? How did they find us just moments after you came back? 

-I don't know! Okay?! It could be just a damaged metal part falling off the roof or something like that! Get off my back Zyl... 

There was a moment of silence, as three of them listened to the noises while the fourth could only listen to the other threes shared thoughts while their hearts pumped in their throats. This tense silence continued for almost ten minutes, when they finally began to relax a little. 

Zyl looked at his friend, the other zealot in the room, and said. 

-Gadun, do not uncover the pylon yet, not until we are sure that it's safe. 

-Okay. 

Answer the other zealot, and stop reaching for the pylon crystal that was only meant to support small items like psionic amplifiers and stuff like that. They were currently using it to recharge some of the weapons and shields energy cells that Ulli needed to survive. Her main reactor core was damaged after she defended them from a bunch of mutalisks attacking from the air out in the open. She saved their lives, and none of them were willing to leave her behind. It was a miracle that they managed to carry her here, it was out of the question to leave after so much effort. 

However, it seemed, that Ulli was the one who had the most trouble accepting the situation that everyone stayed behind with her, risking their lives in the process. She was that troublesome.

A few more minutes went by and Gadun finally decided to reposition the pylon, as there were no more suspicious noises. He uncovered the pylon from the improvised wrappings and was about to place it back in the middle of the corridor, the blue light from the small pylon was already shining filling the narrow corridor with its ghostly light. 

He looked up at his brother in arms as a habit, to search for his expressions, but he froze from what he saw. 

Zyl, was staring wide eyed to the left, into the darkness leading towards the only entrance. The original entrance had collapsed form one of the many attacks hitting the gate's structure. It was impossible to come through there, not without making a whole bunch of noises. 

Gadun finally gathered his courage and also looked towards the direction where Zyl was gazing. What he saw made his skin crawl. 

There was two pairs of glinting eyes looking at them from the darkness. One was a blazing yellow color, while the other was was completely black, only the blue light from the crystal mirrored in it. It was also positioned much closer to ground level than the first one. 

Gadun on a sudden whim decided to toss the small pylon towards the more ominously glowing yellow eyes. The small crystal piece flew close to its target, the target that seemed to jump back in fright seeing the strange blue thing flying towards it. The crystal finally hit the ground giving off an empty clanging sound as it fell on the floor just in front of the unknown entity. The pair of yellow eyes blinked a few times just behind the cover of shadows.

The crystal rolled closer to it as it's light showed the form of a young terran girl, standing next to an unusually large zergling that even had a pair of wings. All of them stared at the form of the terran girl, completely shocked by this outcome, but as the initial surprise passed they also realized that something about this girl was clearly off, well... she was naked for one, and standing next to a zergling for two but still... 

The girl looking at the crystal with curiosity she crouched down and picked it up with a bit of hesitation. At last when she stood up with the crystal held in her hand the light finally showed the girl's true form. There were two large bone white and appendages connected to her back that gave chills to the protoss seeing it, but they couldn't help but gaze upon it in a weird awe. The appendages main joints were not covered with thick carapace, the thin muscles were left bare at the joints for all to see. Her body was also strange, her legs and arms were covered only halfway with a white bone like material as if wearing skintight long gloves and boots. Her hair was turned into thinner black appendages, each one seemed to live it's own life, always moving, fidgeting, searching for something, but only with small movements imitating the wince of a leaf caught in calm summer wind.

But there was no wind in this place.

A heavy silence filled up the dark corridor, as the two opposing sides studied each other, with a certain curiosity, and fear.