Mass Effect: From Hell, We Have Come [SCII/ME Crossover]

[deathzealotzero]

Disclaimer: I declare that I do not own either Starcraft II or Mass Effect. Instead, Blizzard Entertainment Owns Starcraft II, and Bioware/Electronic Arts own the Mass Effect Franchise. So Please Support The Official Release! Thank You!!

Mass Effect: From Hell, We Have Come

A Mass Effect and Starcraft II Crossover Story Novella

Written by,
William R. Woods
aka, "deathzealot", or "deathzealotzero" ​

Foreword

So, welcome to a third version of my basic idea for Mass Effect and Starcraft II crossover story which drops some sort of force from Starcraft II into the events of the Mass Effect trilogy. This really has come about after I noticed that there is little amount of stories that do a traditional crossover story between these two sci-fi video game franchises. As they are normally merged into a single universe and do not kick a character or such from Starcraft into the Mass Effect universe. Heck! There is nothing going the other way having such a thing happen from Mass Effect to the universe of Starcraft. Still, this idea mainly focused on James Eugene Raynor, one of the central characters of the entire franchise, and would through the powers of a fully ascended Sarah Kerrigan be sent to the universe of Mass Effect from around the time after the end of the final campaign of Starcraft II. Kerrigan would also equip Raynor with one of the more advanced Terran Combat Suits and weapons available at the time. From there he would be dropped onto Eden Prime around the start of the first game of the series and would join the whole main storyline of the series alongside a female Commander Shepard. That was the whole basic version of this idea with nothing else really added to the overall idea.

However, that changed when my muse decided to use this idea as a basis for this year's brand-new Writing Frenzy, an event that my local writing group is throwing together in place of National Novel Writing Month. Mainly due to the issues happening around the organization last year and since then. Anyways! My muse expanded on the idea and saw that while Raynor was kicked into the Mass Effect universe he wouldn't be alone. As Kerrigan would not only give Jim the needed weapons, combat suits, and other supplies but would also create a handful of needed allies to follow him. Not to mention it wouldn't be at the start of the game's story but instead would be a few years before the start of the series allowing this small team of Starcraft II characters to get settled into the universe before the events of the series begin. In the meantime, would not only fight against the Batarians but gather some local allies to their cause expanding their forces with these local recruits.

Sadly, though I started to see a few issues with the above version of this story idea, after writing two chapters for it, which soon led to a second version which did change a few things about the idea. Mainly, that is unlike the above idea which had a sort-of ascended version of Raynor spending around a century with Kerrigan wandering the universe before starting to explore alternate universes where they stumble onto the Mass Effect universe. Raynor then manages to convince Kerrigan to help the locals against the Reapers and the story begins soon afterwards. The second version has Kerrigan approach Raynor around the same time he "disappears" in the official story of the game and recruits him to be her champion in fighting against the Reapers in the Mass Effect universe which she discovered after experimenting with her powers. This idea kind of fell flat right at the halfway mark of writing the prelude chapter and while I do have a few ideas to merge a few things of the second idea with the original version my muse kind of latched on to another idea.

This idea basically abandons the whole thing with a single character or even a small group of characters from Starcraft being sent into the Mass Effect universe and sends off a small overall faction from Starcraft into Mass Effect. It also doesn't really focus on James Raynor, but instead, Emperor Valerian Mengsk, son of the previous Emperor of the Terran Dominion Arcturus Mengsk, and a small Dominion Fleet being sent over to the Mass Effect Universe. At his side would be his wife, one November Terra-Mengsk, or better known to many as the Ghost Operative Nova who is a side character from the Starcraft II first campaign storyline and would have had her own video game if things actually went through correctly. Still, this idea came from an older crossover idea that I had years ago after playing through the Legacy of the Void Campaign for the first time. Though I do admit that it was Starcraft crossing over to another popular sci-fi fandom, not Mass Effect.

The overall background to this whole thing would be that instead of siding with Gabriel Tosh during that fateful branch in the story of the Wings of Liberty Campaign Raynor and his Raiders side with Nova. However, during the course of the battle to bring down Tosh and his Specters on Avernus Station Nova would be exposed to a small amount of Terrazine from the destroyed Terrazine tanks. This does lead to her passing out which does see the Raiders evacuating her comatose self from the Station allowing Tosh to escape along with a small amount of his Specters. A bit later Nova wakes up with the vast majority of her memories no longer blocked or removed which does see her turning away from the Dominion and joining the Raiders in their own fight against the Dominion after some mental help from both Raynor and Zeratul, whose meeting with Raynor would be later on in the storyline. Then when Raynor meets with Valerian right before getting the final piece of the Xel'Naga Device Nova meets him as well and coldly tells him a few things about his father which he is not really all that surprised about. The rest of this campaign goes about as it does in canon just with Nova and a few hastily trained Raider Ghosts fighting alongside the Raiders in these final battles. Though Nova does further meet with Valerian more than a few times afterwards during these last few battles.

I do have a bit further on this version of the overall timeline about what happens to Nova and how she becomes involved with Valerian but I really do not want to make this foreword even more a lengthy thing. Still, there are a few other things that should be further explored in the story itself about not only Nova but her relationship with Valerian. As well as her time with the Raiders and her somewhat strained friendship with Raynor, and Kerrigan. I do believe that is enough talk from me and time to get to the story proper! So please do enjoy this story, and hope that it doesn't stall like the two other versions of his overall larger crossover story between that of Starcraft II and Mass Effect. With that said, welcome to Mass Effect: From Hell, We Have Come!

- William R. Woods
October 16, 2024

Prelude - A Journey Begins

Between the various Terrans powers both major and minor in the Koprulu Sector it is not very common for any sort of colonization outside of the sector itself. Even though the available planets to colonize and resources to claim inside the sector shrink every passing year. Instead, they turn to the likes of dedicated terraforming, sealed environmental colonies on more hostile planets, mining out large asteroids or even passing comets, or in more modern times, reclaiming abandoned or destroyed planets from the wars of the past. This is mainly due to the idea that there is nothing for the Terrans outside of the Sector or more recently, an enemy like the UED swooping in to brutally take over the less defended newly settled colonies outside of the more prosperous and defended colonies of the Koprulu Sector. Not to mention, many were scared of what they would find in the darkness of unknown space what with them already having fought against two alien races and finding out about the existence of an ancient precursor race. The question is always 'What else will we find out there? And can we survive it if attacks us?'. Then there is the UED, the United Earth Directorate, the overall nation station in charge of our race's ancient homeworld of Earth, and literally running into their own claimed space which may end up in another attempted invasion of the sector by the UED.

Taken all of this together really has prevented many of the various powers of the sector, along with their leaders, in the sector from expanding outside of the sector to even the most surveyed nearby sectors of space, like the Tursobis Sector to our western border or the Keresh Sector to our southern border, both had been thoroughly surveyed by the powers of the Sector over the years either due to the needs of the wars or other more greedy pursuits. What with the Tursobis Sector perhaps being the most famous with the Kel-Morian Combine sending several probes into the sector to search for resources during the years before the start of the Great War which lead to the settlement of a single colony right along the edge of the border between the two sectors. A colony that would be all out destroyed by the zerg during the early days of the Great War. While the Keresh Sector is literally right next to the home sector of space for the Protoss and had originally been surveyed by the Terran Dominion in the years that followed the Brood Wars in an effort to try to find the homeworld of the Protoss, Auir.

Hence, while exploration and surveying nearby space to the edges of the Koprulu Sector is somewhat accepted by many in the sector, outright colonizing new worlds in even these thoroughly explored neighboring sectors is still somewhat of a taboo subject to many of the average civilians of the sector preventing really any sort of colonization program to be launched outside of the Sector itself. Though it hasn't stopped many from putting forth various proposals for such colonization expeditions or our own creative minds…

- Taken from The Taboo of Out of Sector Colonization: The Reason Behind Such A Thing, written by Doctor Graham Diaz, University of Chau Sara, Published Circa. April, 2510CE

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Open Space
Verge System, Koprulu Sector
Gamma Quadrant, Milky Way Galaxy
September 7, 2512 Common Era

With an almost silent swish of noise, the large main hatchway leading into the bridge of the HMS Bucephalus opened, letting the tall golden-haired figure of Emperor Valerian Mengsk of the Terran Dominion into the beating heart of his own personal flagship. At his entrance, a trio of uniformed figures standing around the central holo table of the bridge turned and bowed shortly towards him as he approached them.

"Majesty," one of the more lavished uniformed figures, a large man, rumbled out loud drawing a nod from the even more lavishly dressed Emperor towards the man before looking over the holographic globe that dominated the central holo table. The Sovereign Class Command Battlecruiser, his personal flagship the HMS Bucephalus, along with its escorts of two Pride of Augustgrad Class Battlecruisers - the HMS Valor of Vardona and HMS Memory of Styrling - and a half-dozen Blizzard Class Light Cruisers were gathered along one side of the large display in a small formation of ships along with a flanking pair of simple holographic markers showing the location of the cloaked Condor Class Stealth Assault Destroyers - the HMS Griffon and HMS Unicorn - both of which were cloaked to further protect his small flotilla from anyone observing their little rendezvous in the middle of nowhere.

Then there happened to be a second larger-sized fleet of Terran ships that dominated the other half of the display. First, at the center of the fleet, there are the half-dozen Odyssey Class Large Colonial Transports, all of which had formerly been Behemoth Class Battlecruisers that had undergone a refit to make them into massively sized colonial transports for large-scale colonial expeditions or really recolonizing older colonies that had been destroyed in the Great Wars, the Brood War, or the End War. They mainly had much of their large ATS Laser removed, but kept the smaller ATA Laser Batteries, while the main Yamato Cannon was removed to make way for an over half kilometer in length passenger section which allowed two hundred thousand or so colonists to be transported in relative comfort inside a large armored transport that could defend itself if needed.

Secondly, these six large former battlecruisers were supported by a further six far smaller four hundred meters in length Titanic Class Colony Ships which carried a further several thousand or so colonists along with the needed tools and such to settle a new colony including prefabricated buildings. They are further supported by a dozen smaller, but similar in overall looks, Hercules Class Cargo Ships which carried the rest of the colonial expeditions supporting cargo including much of its initial food supply. Finally, there was the large spherical form of the Seeker Class Science Ship the HMCS A Lone Wanderer which hovered gently over the six equally large forms of the Odyssey Class Colonial Transports. They were all protected by two Minotaur Class Battlecruisers - the HMS Fearless and HMS Basilisk -, three further Blizzard Class Light Cruisers and a half-dozen smaller Valkyrie-II Class Escort Frigates. Really, an impressive-looking gathering of ships compared to the emperor's own small flotilla. All gathered together by the emperor's command to settle a new world outside of the larger Koprulu Sector. Just over a million colonists and supporting defensive military units were ready to jump into the unknown.

"Ah, the Terminus Colonial Expedition Fleet has finally arrived I see," he mentioned out loud with a small smile gracing his handsome face as he eyed the holographic renderings of the fleet as he came up alongside the holo table.

"Yes, Your Majesty, and ready for your speech," came the smooth soprano voice of Fleet Captain Stephanie Faith Harrington, the current commander of the Bucephalus. A tall and slim looking woman who was standing on the opposite side of the holo table reminding the emperor of the purpose for him to be out here along the very edge of Terran Dominion Space and the larger form of the Koprulu Sector. Oh. He had already been on one of his notable regular tours along the Fringe Colonies of the Dominion in an effort to get right in the action sort of speak and to get closer to some of his most abused subjects from the reign of his father. Still journeying this out-of-the-way system was not only just the last stop for his tour but to witness the first ever Terran Colonization Expedition to be sent outside of the Koprulu Sector and into the nearby Tursobis Sector. Something that he had ordered to be organized a few years ago was now finally realized.

"Thank you, Fleet Captain," the emperor replied to the woman with another smile on his face before focusing on the second figure gathered around the holo table who looked at the holo display with a grim frown on their face.

"Still not all that pleased by this are you, Everett?" he questioned the figure, one Brigadier Everett Vaughn, the former captain of the Bucephalus, the overall commander of this small flotilla of ships and the overall larger form of the 1st Imperial Guard Regimental Combat Team, the Emperor's own personal guard force.

"I have no real issues with this whole operation my Emperor, what I do have a concern over is you being way out here along the edge of Dominion Space without at least a much larger fleet with us," the large-sized man mentioned with his earlier rumble of a voice as he frowned over at the form of his Emperor. This made the emperor sigh and shake his head for while he did understand the worries of his friend and overall man reasonable for the protection of his own presence. Not to mention his small family.

"Not to mention having the Empress and your unborn child along for this tour has not sit well with me at all," he further mentioned with now a large glower on his face looking around as if there were some hidden assassin hiding somewhere along the bridge of the overall flagship of the entire Terran Dominion Armed Forces.

Something that was quite laughable as not only was the ship's entire crew checked out by numerous means but also were constantly psionically screened for anyone trying to sneak in some sort of spy or assassin onto the emperor's chosen flagship. Not to mention several red- and gold-colored forms of Imperial Marines in heavy CMC-535 Combat Suits were spread over the entire bridge. That was not even including the handful of smaller forms in shadowed HES-09 Hostile Environment Suits that were hidden along the shadows of the large bridge, these being Dominion Imperial Shadows, soldiers able to use psionics to combat any threat. All of which were entirely loyal to the emperor. Still, there was some concern over having the vast majority of the Imperial Family of the Dominion out in this out-of-way system. As while many of the large threats to the Dominion were either destroyed entirely or now allied to them, there were still a few different threats to the emperor who would love to ambush them away from the larger Dominion Armed Forces.

"I do understand your concerns my friend, but the Empress did insist on coming along with this tour for some reason bringing with her our unborn kid. And I wasn't about to argue with her thanks to her moods," he replied to the concerned man mentioning the overall often swinging moods of his wife the Empress which did draw some light chuckles from the rest of the bridge crew. For they were all quite aware of their Empress and her various different moods due to her pregnancy.

"Speaking of the Empress sire, I would have thought she would have joined you?" questioned the final figure around the holo display, one Senior General Charlotte Ann Warfield, the Dominion's current Commander-in-Chief of the entire Dominion Armed Forces and part of the emperor's own current close staff. Also, the niece of the famous General Horace Warfield who had joined her uncle in the Dominion Military but due to her connections with the man had been imprisoned after the man's failure to stop Kerrigan or the remaining Zerg Broodmothers at Char by the orders of Valerian's father. After Valerian took the throne, he would go through the various cases his father personally got involved in and would release a good half of the people imprisoned on his father's orders. Including the whole remaining Warfield family much to his own personal horror.

"She was feeling a bit tired therefore decided to take a nap, but she shall be here when the Expedition makes its first jump towards the Tursobis Sector," he explained with a shrug and a concerned look on his face and the other three gathered around the table. For they all were quite close to the tiny Imperial Family and could be quite concerned over the tiny things about the two of them.

"Well, I do hope she and the child are alright," the figure of Fleet Captain Harrington mentioned out loud with some concern making the Emperor nod at her with his own worried smile on his face.

"Yes, pass on our concerns to her please majesty," General Warfield mentioned a moment later, making the emperor's nod at her as well before he shifted his attention back to the holographic display.

"Still cannot believe this day has finally arrived after more than a year of various people telling me that it wasn't possible, or something similar, with our current resources and manpower," he mused out loud before eying the various holographic representations of the ships of the Colonization Expedition Fleet. For indeed many inside the Dominion were against the project from the start, calling it a waste of resources and manpower to try to put down a colony outside of the sector itself. Something that was a solid concern that he had listened to, not his own thoughts on the matter. It was better than those handfuls of people saying that it was not right to put down a colony outside of the sector as it was their home and putting a foot outside of the Sector would be the end of everything.

"Well Sire, it was quite an interesting proposal to put the colony in the Terminus System, a system smack dab in the middle of a difficult to traverse nebula with its unique blend of radiation preventing anyone from warping into the nebula itself. A perfect defense and an even better fallback position if the Sector is invaded again by the UED," General Warfield replied with a soft chuckle at the whole idea for the Terminus System had been discovered by an old Confederate exploration probe before being followed by a small research expedition which found the nebula and the system hidden there in sported a somewhat decent world to fully able to be colonized, after some tweaking of course. Hence, when the plan for his Out of Sector Colonization Expedition was finally starting to make headway in the Dominion the Emperor would propose the destination as the newly named Terminus System for its target. He further explained that it would make a fine fallback point in case of any further invasion by the UED or another future enemy force.

"Not to mention the rich resources contained in the system and the idea to put a brand-new shipyard facility in the system made it quite an interesting proposal for many in the Dominion Senate. Quite an excellent idea all around sire," Brigadier Vaughn managed to rumble out with a short chuckle of his own making the emperor nod towards him with a large beaming smile at the praise. As spread out along the cargo bays of the Odyssey and Heracles Class ships were dozens of prefabricated pieces to assemble an orbital shipyard facility fully capable of building pretty much any ship in the Terran Dominion inventory from simple civilian haulers to a full-on Gorgon Class Superbattlecruiser with enough gathered resources.

"Yes, it was a good idea I admit to propose it like that but please remember ladies and gentlemen that at its core the Terminus Colony is more than a simple fallback position in case of further invasion of the Koprulu Sector, but a means to carry on the Terran Dominion in case of any sort of large scale disaster bringing down the Dominion," the Emperor explained in a more serious sounding voice looking over the figures of his three main subordinates with a grim look on his face making them all look back at him their own severe looks on their faces. They all were fully briefed about the main mission of the Terminus Colonial Expedition, the outright condition of the Terran Dominion as a nation state in case of disaster bringing the government of the Dominion down.

"On a less grim nature it does allow further exploration into the Tursobis Sector with some very interesting unknown ruins on some of the planets located there," the Emperor mentioned after several long moments of silence between them all remembering various bits of the Sector's more recent history, like the fall of Tarsonis to the Zerg Swarm, and the brief absorption of the Dominion into the UED during the course of the Brood War. Before being jolted out of these dark thoughts by the emperor's own comment making them all blink over at him in some surprise before chuckles were exchanged across the holo table between them all. All three officers were quite aware of the emperor's own passion for such things over the years having known him.

"That is quite true Sire, but you are not going to be harrying off to do such explorations yourself," the figure of the Brigadier chided the younger man with a small smile on his face making the figure of the emperor glare over at him.

"It was only the one time!" he almost whined out loud before sighing and chuckling at the older man.

"Well played General," he mentioned after a moment before focusing back on the holographic display and noticing the time at the corner of the display making him blanch in some shock before composing himself. All three officers did the same when they noticed their emperor looking at the display in some shock. A moment later all four of the gathered figures where back in their official roles of Emperor and his closest confidants.

"Well, it does look like the time for my speech is fast approaching," he commented before looking over at the Fleet Captain and nodding at her who turned herself over to her bridge's communication section.

"You heard the emperor! Get the broadcast to the entire Expedition Fleet set up as soon as possible," she ordered the men manning that section.

"Aye, ma'am!" They all called back before leaning over their combined station however before anything further happened the officers manning the ship's sensor station suddenly leaned forward in some surprise as their station started to blare at them in some warning. This drew the attention of the rest of the bridge and the four figures gathered around the central holo table. A moment later the lead sensor officer turned towards them in some form of confusion.

"Sirs! Our sensors are detecting a gathering of graviton particles and vortex warp energy," the man reported making all four figures blink in some surprise before the holo display chance from displaying a representation of gathered ships to a focused view on the location of interest. It was located roughly halfway between the two terran task forces, the Imperial Guard Flotilla and the Terminus Colonial Expedition.

"Were we expecting anyone from the Protoss to arrive for this operation?" General Warfield questioned in some confusion knowing that it was only the Protoss could currently use such energy and particles in their warp technology. Mainly thanks to their more advanced psychic powered warp technology that the terrans had barely been able to scratch at in the years since first contact between their two races.

"No. I have talked to Hierarch Artanis about my plans, but the Daelaam Union is still in the process of rebuilding Aiur and reclaiming a few of their nearby colonies in the Khaladas Sector to be all that interested in a colonial expedition," the Emperor mentioned in his own confusion at the appearance of such an anomaly for he was quite aware that the protoss of the Daelaam where quite busy trying to rebuild their civilization of the central sector of the Sigma Quadrant and the heart of the former Protoss Empire.

"Could it be the Tal'darim? I know that we have a sort of peace with the Highlord but there apparently are still some splinters of the older Tal'darim Sects around after all," Brigadier Vaughn mentioned with a scowl on his face making the others gathered around the new display to frown in some concern at this idea.

"I thought the Tal'darim didn't use graviton particles in their warp drives but a variant of solarite," questioned the Fleet Captain as she eyed the readings with a growing sense of unease, something that was starting to be shared by the rest of the ship's bridge crew.

"That is quite correct," the emperor replied with narrowed eyes, however before anything happened two things happened together. The first where the nearby guarding Imperial Shadows groaning out loud in some pain, which drew the attention of the emperor, and the second was more readings starting to appear on the holo display which was soon reported by the now panicking form of the lead sensor officer, which drew the attention of the other three senior officers.

"SIR! There is now void energy being gathered at the center of the anomaly!" the man managed to report even through his growing panic. For like many of the officers onboard the Bucephalus had been onboard during the final days of the End War when Terran, Zerg, and Protoss gathered together to finally destroy the Fallen Xel'Naga Amon in the darkness of the overall region of subspace known as the Void which powered not only the Dark Templar of the Protoss but the followers of Amon who would use such energy in their defense of their living god over the course of that battle. The Bucephalus barely managed to survive one attack during the battle, and it was only its enhanced armor and a timely application of a defensive matrix that defended the ship from the attack.

"Contact all of the ships in this system! Emergency Warp out of here now!!" the bellow of the Brigadier reached the entire bridge as he pounded a beefy head on the edge of the holo table in his overall fury and fear at what was going on. From his position helping the nearest Imperial Shadow to their feet, the emperor could only sigh as he knew from his own studies that it was way too late to do anything and closed his eyes.

'Luckily for the Dominion Arturia would make a fine Empress,' he managed to think to himself with a small sad smile on his face mentioning his distant cousin who he had managed to find out about in the years that followed the End War who he had made his direct heir. At least till the birth of his child, anyway which wouldn't happen now much to his sadness for he had truly been quite excited to become a father. He then closed his eyes in acceptance as everything went white when the gathered energy of the detected anomaly exploded outwards, and he knew nothing more as the gathered forty-five Terran ships disappeared from this universe along with the one point three million terrans onboard said ships. There was nothing to show how they disappeared or what had done the deed. As with the anomaly and its gathered energy, there was nothing really able to show what had happened here to any sort of sensor. Nothing remained… at least in this universe.

-o-End-o-​

Post Chapter Notes

And that is a wrap! I am actually quite proud of this chapter outside of some of the bits in the middle of the chapter. Sigh. Still, it is quite an interesting chapter that I managed to wrangle my muse to create. The overall idea for the chapter was to bring a small fleet of the Terran Dominion, mainly a dedicated colonial fleet, from the Starcraft universe to that of the Mass Effect universe. So, no worries our loveable "Junior" Emperor Valerian is still alive and is now going to appear in the Mass Effect universe along with over one million of his people.

That does take us to the overall "how" they all got kicked into the Mass Effect universe. Well, when I originally came up with this idea it would have been a void corrupted Mass Relay that a couple of Amon's followers had been messing around with during those final hectic days of the End War. However, I did not really know how that would have worked, Void energies meeting with that of Element Zero or even how it managed to get on this side of the divide, therefore moved away from that whole idea. Instead, I kind of created my own little tech babble bit of lore to explain it with graviton particles, something seen in a few Protoss unit or ability descriptions, meeting that of vortex warp energy, my term for energy from protoss warp tech, and general void energy that when combined all together pretty much created the whole event to transfer them all over to the Mass Effect universe. I am quite proud of the whole idea! I really do not know if it would actually work, lore-wise, but sorry I have not talked with the likes of Subsourian, the Starcraft King of Lore, if it is even possible but I am pretty sure it does sound like something happened which is what I actually wanted for all of it.

Okay. Time to get to a few other main points I want to cover before I end these notes. First of all, I'm sure you can guess what the original crossover was for this idea when I originally came up with it years ago. Mainly, in the description of the Terminus System, and yeah it would be Nu!Battlestar Galactica where the Rag Tag Fleet would run into a small Terran Dominion outpost and future full Dominion Colony on the planet that they called Terminus. A fun little nod to my original crossover idea for this whole thing. It also does use a few other bits from my other Starcraft story ideas, like the Imperial Shadows, which are units that draw on training for both the Ghosts and the Spectres with some flavor from the Protoss. Originally, I had them named the Wraiths but since I am using the Emperor's Shadow unit from the Co-Op Commander for Arcturus Mengsk as a visual base for them they get a new name for this story to reflect this.

Moving on, something else I wanted to mention before I end these lengthy notes is that I am using HMS, His/Her Majesty's Ship, for the Dominion's national ship prefix instead of the semi-canon DS, Dominion Ship, or the various fanon prefixes like DNS, Dominion Naval Ship I guess. Still, it is mainly due to my love of the Honor Harrington Series which is why I am using it for this story. This further expanded with the prefix of HMCS, which is His/Her Majesty's Civilian Ship, which works for non-military ships in my mind, though I may also use HMAS as well for military auxiliary ships. Shrug. Finally, I like to point out that of the characters introduced in this chapter only Valerian and Everett Vaughn are actually canon characters. The others are original characters that I had created for an even older Starcraft idea that I had and repurposed here for this story. Yeah. The Fleet Captain is based on Honor Harrington while General Warfield is the niece of Horace Warfield. Okay. I think that is it.

With all of that said! I am going to see about getting started on the next chapter where we see this gathered fleet being rudely dropped into the Mass Effect Universe and a certain now ascended Queen Bitch of the Universe makes an appearance. Till then! Thanks for reading!

 

[deathzealotzero]

Episode One - A New Variable​

"I still think we should help this universe and their people with these Reapers," an angry masculine voice could be heard saying which drew a deep sigh from someone else for it went on with more anger, "Not to mention I would love to shove an Impaler up the ass of these fucking slaving Batarians and open fire at full auto."

"Jim, I do agree with you and everything, especially these Batarians, but with myself not able to compress my powers into a mortal body any longer we do not have many options," a feminine sorrowful sounding voice replied to the first voice got an angry curse from the first voice.

"And while I could return to a mortal form, we have some problems with that as well," the first voice could be heard saying a bit of annoyance in their voice.

"Yes, we have been over this already Jim. I am not about to send you in alone with pretty much nothing to use to fight the Reapers," the second, feminine voice, shot back with a hint of anger now leaking into the voice making the first voice sigh out loud.

"Yeah, I got that, you only have a limited supply of essence and biomass so can create only a small team," the first voice grumbled out with a bit of annoyance as it went on, "Even if you could create such a team you can't create anything for them as you cannot create stuff out of nothing even with your all of your impressive powers and everything."

"I am not Amon Jim he used the energy he drew from the Void itself to create those fully equipped void thralls to use against us in the war. I need some actual material or resources to create what we would need to fully equip you in mortal form or a small team of created soldiers from my stored essence and biomass," the feminine voice calmly explained to the first voice who huffed at the second voice making it just sigh in outright outrage at the first voice before it seemed to pause in some surprise.

"Wait Jim do you feel that?" the second voice asked in some concern making the first voice hum in some thought.

"I feel something darling, but I do not know what it is," the first voice answered in some confusion making the second voice seem like it nodded.

"Well that is direct Void energy mixed with what feels like Protoss Vortex Warp energy," the second voice explained drawing a deep breath of some sort of surprise from the first voice, "I remember it from my time working alongside Artanis and his forces when we first encountered Ulnar and the dead Xel'Naga."

"The Protoss here, in this universe!" the first voice almost yelped in its surprise for it had not expected that at all.

"No, I do not think so but something from our home universe or even something from the void itself is about to arrive in this universe," the second voice explained with some concentration which drew the first voice's attention.

"It's going to arrive in this system!" the first voice exclaimed in surprise and a bit of suspicion as it seemed to stare off towards where all of this was going on. The two had been floating above a small moon that held an outpost of the slave operations of the larger Batarian Hegemony on the edge of the lawless Terminus Systems. And it had been one more reason why the two had wanted to help these people.

"You know if I was a betting woman, I would say that this is some sort of prophetic thing once more," the second voice grumbled out in outright outrage at what was happening. For it had been involved with more than one actual prophecy thanks in part to the Xel'Naga that provided the needed essence to ascend her into a virtual goddess in her own right.

"I am so not taking that bet, Sarah," the first voice mentioned with a dark chuckle before looking over towards the system's only asteroid belt where they were picking up that energy, "So shall we go then and see what this happens to be."

"Yeah, yeah. Still, I swear if this some stupid prophecy or something I am going to revive Zeratul so I can kill him myself!" the second voice ranted out drawing another short chuckle from the first voice. Still, the two seem to flash from floating above the moon and its outpost before arriving just out of range of the growing amount of energy.

"Woah howdy! That is a lot of energy!!" the first voice exclaimed with a shout as it stared at the expanding ball of energy. Then as it said that the ball of energy started to rapidly expand outwards before it disappeared with a flash of deep green light leaving behind dozens of floating ships. Ships that the two immediately recognized right off the bat.

"The hell? That is a Terran Dominion Fleet! And that is actually the Bucelpeus itself, Junior's Flagship! What in the world are they doing here?" the first voice managed to say in outright shock as it stared at the floating ships.

"Are you sure Jim?" the second voice asked after a moment which made the first voice snort.

"Hon, I was on that ship enough times after you took out old Arturus that I know it by sight just like the old Hyperion," the first voice explained with a chuckle before seeming to smirk at something or another, "Besides it is one of only two ships of that particular class of battlecruiser to have the horrid gold secondary color and that even worse wolfhead on its bow."

"And besides you tore the old Prydwen right out of the sky when it tried to attack you during your attack on Palace during the Invasion of Korhal. So, it should be the only ship remaining in the Dominion Fleet that looks like that. Unless Junior went and commissioned another flagship anyways," the first voice mentioned with an amused sounding voice making the second voice let out a surprised hum at this before seeming to nod at its partner.

"Yeah, now that you mention I do recall a battlecruiser trying all out ram me out of the sky when I was taking apart some of those Warhawk Heavy Gunships Arturus sent after me," the second voice mused to itself before seeming to focus back on the fleet and the handful of powerful psionic signatures, including one very familiar signature, on that gold-colored monstrosity of a flagship.

"Still Jim, sweety, why don't you cross over to the old Koprulu Sector and see what or who caused all of this," the second voice ordered making the first voice grumble slightly before nodding in agreement.

"Yes, ma'am!" the first voice replied before seeming to pause and look at its partner, "What about you Sarah? What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to say hi to an old friend," the second voice said in some amusement which drew the attention of the first voice to what the second voice had detected earlier before letting off a bark of laughter.

"Don't scare her too bad Sarah, she did save your fine ass more than a few different times and getting my head straight after you busted in that prison ship to rescue me," the first voice gently reminded the second making it sigh and nod over at its partner.

"I remember," it nearly whispered before the first voice seemed to fire off a salute to the second and with a flash of golden light disappeared from their sight. That done the second voice advanced towards the golden-colored large battlecruiser with a smile on its face.

---

WELL! This is the actual preface for the first episode of the story, basically taking a page out of the book of the game which had the individual campaigns of the games be known as Episodes. And yes, the two characters talking in this preface are an ascended version of Sarah Kerrigan and Jim Raynor which is actually from the first two versions of this idea. Which basically had Jim sent to the Mass Effect Universe with a small team by Kerrigan. I am keeping them around as a sort of ascended backup for Valerian and his people as a nod to this original version of this idea. Also, I like to mention that the overall "look" mentioned as the Bucelpeus is actually the Co-Op Commander version of the Pride of Augustgrad Class Battlecruiser design mixed with the fan-made model for the Norad II which has a wolf head on its bow. The actual pair of Pride Class ships that serve as escorts for the flagship look exactly like the Co-op Mode version of the boat but do not have the gold color instead sporting a more bronze-like color. Okay. That is about it for these notes. I am going to post the actual first chapter of this story sometime tomorrow as I have some writing I need to get done tonight.

 

[deathzealotzero]

Chapter One - We Have Arrived

When the Terran Dominion and its entire Armed Forces were being reorganized in the aftermath of Prince Valerian Mengsk being crowned as the second Emperor of the Terran Dominion, one major part of said reorganization was the total rebuilding of the old Terran Dominion Royal Guard Division into something brand new. Emperor Valerian gave this daunting task to one of his most loyal military aides during his exile from the larger Dominion, one Captain Everett Vaughn, formerly the captain of the Sovereign Class Battlecruiser Bucephalus before its capture by the loyalist Dominion Forces at the Battle of Prometheus Station. This came with a promotion from a simple captain of a large battlecruiser to a general in overall command of a larger force that would be this version of the Royal Guard.

The first thing that General Vaughn did was look over the official paperwork and such on the old Royal Guard Division and would be quite surprised to find that the Division was literally an army in itself. With five whole regiments of mixed heavy infantry - marines, heavy marines, marauders, and firebats - combined together with four various types of armored regiments - a combat walker unit, another pair of regiments for hover tanks, then one regiment entirely for heavy siege tanks, and then further reinforced by a company of siege walkers - and three combined aerospace divisions - transformable aerospace fighters, lightweight VTOL gunships, cloak capable aerospace fighters, and heavier aerospace gunships - which were further supported by seven entire battlecruisers. A literal largescale army complete with its own chain of command, dedicated separate support forces - including a regiment-sized frontline medic division and a battalion-sized direct frontline support force using SCVs - and its own bureaucratic support system in place. All separate from that of the larger regular Terran Dominion Armed Forces.

After discovering this the newly promoted General Vaughn would decide that while he would love to have such a massively sized force protecting their new Emperor, it wouldn't be viable all that much. Not to mention he doubted that the newly convened Terran Dominion Senate would allow it. Therefore, would start building a whole new unit from scratch, which he called the 1st Imperial Guard Regimental Combat Team to separate it from the older Royal Guard Division and to make nice with the regular Armed Forces who had been using such units since their own formation. Then using the remaining handful of Dominion forces that remained loyal to Valerian during his exile, all veterans of the Second Invasion of Char, and carefully screened members of the remaining nearly two percent of the old Royal Division that survived the Fourth Battle of Korhal IV alive as a solid experienced base for building up the new unit around. From there the General would carefully recruit from the regular Dominion Armed Forces units to expand the unit from its solid core of experienced personnel. Eventually, the General had a loyal, somewhat experienced Imperial Guard Unit, which he would over the following years carefully expand slightly as the Imperial Family grew from a single man to a small family.

- Taken from the entry for the 1st Imperial Guard Regimental Combat Team Entry, from the Notable Units of the Dominion Armed Forces, Published Circa, July 2510CE

Unknown Place
Unknown Time

In a small solar system in the middle of nowhere with a small rocky-looking terrestrial planet and a second mid-sized gas giant being the only planets in the system. Also, a large asteroid belt wrapped around the edge of the system with it being just over a dozen light minutes away from the gas giant itself. It was in this asteroid belt that a tiny ball of oozing blackness suddenly appeared, at first it barely had a diameter of just a few inches before it started to rapidly expand itself becoming the size of a small planetoid in the matter only seconds before finally becoming a sphere that was nearly a hundred kilometers in size. A moment later this perfect sphere of darkness disappeared in a burst of dark green light leaving behind the forms of just under four dozen starships in its place silently drifting. A few more moments went by before various running lights and other such bits of light started to appear along all of the ships while the engines of the ship started to flicker for a bit before roaring to life stabilizing their drift.

A small fleet of unknown ships to this universe had just arrived in this out-of-the-way relatively unknown solar system. No one was there to observe such an event, at least outside of a pair of ghost-like powerful entities anyways. However, that wasn't really all that important to the people on the ships at that moment.

Bridge
HMS Bucephelus

"Your majesty!?"

"Sir! Power is coming back online now!"

"Sire! Please!"

"Sensors are still scrambled right now, sir! Still, we are trying to figure out our current location!"

"Valerian! We need you to get up now!"

"General we have communications with the rest of the Guard Flotilla and the Colonization Expedition Fleet!"

A series of blurred voices could be heard as the man in charge of the gathered ships of this unknown fleet of ships started to come back to himself with a deep groan. Then with a blink of ladened sticky feeling eyelids he finally fully started to return to somewhat of an actual alert state noticing the face of someone leaning over him along with a second fully covered face that he quickly figured was the fully enclosed hood of an Imperial Shadow Operative. While the first face he was easily able to recognize was the face of the head of his personal guard General Everett Vaughn. After a moment he winced as his head was killing him, but he quickly pushed back the pain as he remembered what had happened to them all. With a jolt, he tried to get up from what he soon realized was the deck plating of the back of the bridge near the main hatchway leading into the bridge itself. However, before he could the large hand of General Vaughn pushed him back down to the deck.

"Please stay down for now Your Majesty till we get a medic up here to check on you. You took a nasty fall when whatever that anomaly happened to be exploded complete with a gash on your forehead and what looks to be a large bump on the top of your head," the man explained with in his rumbling-sounding voice making the Emperor sigh and nod at the man.

"I understand General, but I'm sure I can get a report about what happened from down here right?" he questioned the man, making him seem to sigh at him before looking up from him at the rest of the bridge before looking back down at him.

"Well sire whatever happened with that anomaly seemed to have thrown the Guard Flotilla and the Colonial Expedition Fleet to somewhere unknown," the man reported making the Emperor nod in some understanding for that is something that sounded like he was expecting when first heard about the void energy.

"Sounds about right," he managed to say with a wince as his head still hurt which he hoped was just because of the gash and bump instead of something a bit more serious. He saw the raised eyebrow and such from the General before he rolled his eyes at the man.

"Have you forgotten General, I may be an Emperor and leader of a nation right now but at heart, I am still a scientist in a way. Hence, I knew the moment that void energy was mentioned to be entering the anomaly that there was a small chance that it would transport us somewhere else instead of outright destroying us entirely," he mentioned with another wince and reached to touch his forehead which came back a bit bloody. Still, he was quite aware that head wounds bleed a lot and therefore wasn't that worried but still this wasn't a good thing.

"I haven't forgotten that sire but I didn't think you knew anything about void energy," the General replied with an impressed look on his face. This made the Emperor smirk up at him for a moment before sighing and shaking his head.

"Not that much really, the majority I do know is from a brief discussion I had with the High Phase Smith of the Daelaam Union Karax after a meeting I had with Hierarch Artanis about one of our expeditions to some of the destroyed worlds out in the outskirts of the sector stumbled onto a Void Shrine of some sort which saw the Daelaam being called in to secure it," he replied to the General with a short chuckle making the larger man look at him with an exasperated yet still fond look on his face.

"So basically you are the terran to have the most knowledge in Void Energy as a result then?" the man sarcastically mentioned out loud to him making Valerian laugh lightly at this before denying it with a shake of his head drawing another wince from him.

"No. I'm sure that there are one or two members of the old Project Blackstone Team who have a better idea on void energy than I do but that won't help us right now," he said in return to the General who nodded in understanding of this statement from his emperor.

"Still that said, is there anything else to report General?" he questioned the man who looked back up at the rest of the bridge to see that Fleet Captain Harrington was finished gathering reports from her bridge crew.

"Well, Fleet Captain? Anything to report right now?" he called out to her from the side of the Emperor, drawing her attention to him through the literal wall of Shadow Operatives and Imperial Marines that gathered around the fallen Emperor.

"Well General, the good news is that while we have somewhere over a couple hundred or so injuries no one has died from the anomaly exploding like that. The bad news is that we don't have any sort of idea of where we are currently," she reported to him, making both the General and Emperor nod in understanding of the report.

"That is very good Fleet Captain that no one is dead from that. For now, just see about checking on the civilians and such over at the Colonial Expedition Fleet. I'm sure there is some panic over there due to this incident," Valerian managed to order with a slightly raised voice that carried over the open bridge to her.

"I understand Your Majesty and pass that on to the Colonial Transport commanders," she replied and just as she did so the hatch buzzed open to let in a team of medics and nurses along with a few extra members of the crew who moved towards stations that had injured personnel still manning them. One of the few fully armored medics broke off from the pack of medical personnel to make their way over to the emperor not even being stopped by the Imperial Marines for the armored shoulder pauldron of the medic bore a winged angel emblem instead of the normal red cross or callidus of a regular medic unit showing them to be part of the Skibi Angel Medical Corps attached to the overall larger Imperial Guard Regimental Combat Team.

"General Vaughn," the medic greeted the large man standing above the Emperor before kneeling down at the other side raising their faceplate as they did so showing the youthful pretty face of Commander Mari Suzek the overall woman in charge of the Skibi Angels, and one of the few medical professionals trusted enough to treat anyone from the Imperial Family.

"Well our Emperor is getting into trouble again I see," she mentioned to him as she visually inspected him for a moment before reaching forward to probe both the cut on his forehead and the bump.

"Well you know me, Commander I like to get into trouble," Valerian weakly joked making the medic smile slightly at him before taking a tool from her belt and using it to spray the cut on his forehead covering it in a sort of invisible bandage that itself was covered with a painkiller making the emperor sigh in some relief. Meanwhile, the Medic looked down at the powerful forearm-mounted computer and after a moment chose a command on the screen.

"Alright hold still sire," she ordered him and from her forearm computer a scanning beam started to go over his body for a few seconds before displaying the results on the screen of her computer making her hum in some thought.

"The good news is that you have no concussion or any further head injury," she reported out loud making many of the gathered Imperial Marines and Shadows to sigh in some relief at this report from the Medic. Something that did draw a sort of half-smile from the Emperor, for he is still somewhat surprised at how much many of his subjects cared for him even with what his own father had done in the years since he created the Terran Dominion.

"What's the bad news then commander?" Valerian asked her a bit confused, making her smirk slightly at him.

"Your personality," she shot back, making him chuckle lightly at the joke, something that Commander Suzek is known for, before starting to get up from his position.

"No. The bad news is that I want to see you in the medical bay as soon as you can majesty," she said, making him nod at her as it did make sense for while the scanner built into the woman's forearm computer was powerful it was nothing on the scanners found in a real med bay. Not to mention looking over what he was sure was bruising further on his body and the gash on his head.

"Understood Commander, I shall do that when things start calming down a bit," he replied as he finally got back onto his feet with only a small wobble. That done he turned back to the now standing medic commander.

"That said, do you have a report on our injured personnel?" he asked her, making her sigh and enter another command into her forearm computer.

"Only for this ship right now sir," she warned him, making him nod in some understanding before waving for her to go on.

"Well, it is mainly just some small cuts and bruising from people falling during whatever happened. One engineer had a fully suited marine fall onto him, but he should be fine after a stint in a medical pod in the med bay. Then there are several marines that got banged up due to being thrown down corridors and such, but they should be alright due to them being fully suited at the time." she reported to him reading off reports from the computer making sigh in some outright relief.

"That is about it sire," she mentioned with a smile on her face before looking over as the injured bridge crew members were escorted off the bridge towards the main med bay further into the hull of the ship.

"We got lucky," the General rumbled out loud as he came up alongside the Emperor.

"Very true sir," the medic commander said in turn, but before anyone else could say anything to that one of the Shadow Operatives seemed to freeze in surprise before letting out what sounded like a curse drawing their attention to them.

"My Emperor! The Empress appears to be not waking up!" the operative soon reported and before he knew it Valerian was running out of the bridge with the General and Medic Commander at his heels.

Unknown Place
Unknown Time

It took quite a lot to startle one November "Nova" Terra-Mengsk thanks to her past as one of the top Ghost Operatives of the Terran Dominion for a few years. Still going from a deep sleep to suddenly appearing in an endless void in which nothing was seen in any direction around herself. Just a soft golden glow coming from something in the distance. After a moment she recognized this as some kind of mental projection but such a large projection gave her a clue that whoever did this was quite powerful. Something that made her wince before raising a hand to the "crown" looking device wrapped around the top of her head. A psychic damping device that deluded her own powers mainly to prevent any injury to the growing baby she had inside her. Something that both made her uneasy and a bit of acceptance for she had read some horror stories about pregnant high-powered psychics. Thankfully, the Protoss had a means to dilute her powers to allow a successful birth which saw her wearing such a device voluntarily. Suddenly she was startled yet again as a figure appeared at her side.

"Easy Nova, I am not going to hurt you or your baby," the figure sheepishly mentioned in a somewhat familiar voice making Nova relax just a tad before looking over to see a tall red-haired terran woman in an old Confederate-era white-colored Hostile Environment Suit. Something that soon saw her getting an idea of who this figure actually happened to be in reality making her wince once more.

"Kerrigan," she managed to say with a frown on her face staring at the other woman and former fellow Ghost. The two had a sort of strange relationship between the two of them as the first time they actually met Kerrigan had been trying to kill the man that Nova was trying to protect and started to fall in love with much to her own horror. The two then met a few more times in the following angered crusade of the woman in the Terran Dominion. First when Kerrigan managed to save her own partner James Raynor, from a Dominion Prison Ship and later on when she contacted them before her final assault on Korhal itself. During that battle, the two of them had teamed up a few times to combat several Dominion Ghost Operatives sent against them by the Emperor to kill the two of them. Before finally, when Kerrigan reached the private panic room of the Emperor, Nova had followed her, allowing the older woman to be saved by Nova when she destroyed the strange Xel'Naga device being used by the Emperor to harm Kerrigan. From there the two of them ran into each other on a couple of different battlefields and would once again team up during the early stages of the final battles of the End War against the gathered forces of the Fallen Xel'Naga Amon.

"Yeah, it has been a while hasn't it," the other woman said with a small smile on her face before with a wave of her hand she summoned a small table and two chairs.

"Let's sit you down for it does look like you need it," she mentioned with a twinkle in her eyes something that made Nova snort for she was sure that Kerrigan was quite aware that while she was pregnant it didn't mean anything in such a mental projection like this place. Still she sat down across from the other woman with a frown for she wondered why Kerrigan is now showing herself as she had been wondering about the universe doing her own thing after her ascension to what could be arguably called a goddess which allowed her to bring down Amon for good.

"Okay, what is going on Kerrigan?" she finally managed to ask which drew out a sigh from the other woman after sadly looking down at Nova's belly and the baby growing there for Nova knew that Kerrigan couldn't really have a child thanks to becoming an infested agent for the Zerg Overmind, then being de-infested by a strange alien device, infested again this time at her own choice, and finally becoming an all-powerful being that could be said to being a goddess.

"Well it appears your earlier hunch something was going to happen to Valerian and his people did indeed come true Nova," the other woman managed to say after a few moments looking like she was trying to say something. At this comment, Nova blinked in some surprise for she had been having some sort of strange hunch that something was going to happen to her husband and his men on this pet colonization project he had planned on creating. Therefore, she insisted on accompanying the fleet on the earlier tour along the Fringe Colonies of the Dominion and the meet up of the Colonization Fleet which would end the tour. Even though she was several months pregnant.

"What happened?" she managed to say to herself after several moments of silence between the two of them.

"Well some sort of strange anomaly appeared in the Verge System just as Valerian was going to begin his speech and pretty much grabbed the Imperial Guard Fleet along with the colonization fleet before throwing them into another universe," Kerrigan managed to say making Nova blink once more in some surprise at what the other woman was saying to her.

"Come again?" she managed to inquire after a moment of outright surprise on Nova's part making Kerrigan smile a bit slightly at her.

"You are all now in another universe that is quite different from the one you are used to Empress," Kerrigan answered, making Nova close her eyes in outright horror and a bit of bafflement at what had happened.

"I guess that means poor Arturia is now going to be the Empress of the Dominion much to her horror," she replied, mentioning her husband's distant cousin who had remained behind on Korhal due to being Valerian's heir. The woman didn't really want to be a leader of the entire Dominion but accepted being made the heir as she wouldn't have held the position for all that long for Nova and Valerian were already trying for kids by that point.

"And Matthew Horner is now going to Empress Consort much to his own horror I'm sure," Kerrigan impishly said with a small grin on her face making Nova look over at her in some surprise before barking out a laugh for Matthew Horner, former second to Jim Raynor and Captain of the Hyperion had married Arturia a year or so ago after a near-disastrous but brief relationship between the two.

"That is going to be quite amusing and I would love to see that man's face when he figures out his new position," she shot back after the two shared a small laughing spree between the two of them at the image in their minds.

"Still I'm going to miss everyone I am going to leave behind in our home universe, like Zagara," Nova mentioned with a sigh and a shake of her head not noticing the wide-eyed surprised stare from the other woman.

"Zagara as in the new queen of the Zerg Swarm?" Kerrigan questioned out loud to her in some surprise drawing Nova's attention to Kerrigan.

"Oh yeah. You wouldn't have been there for that," Nova mused out loud with an amused look on her face before sighing and looking off into the endless void of Kerrigan's mental projection.

"Basically, I met Zagara again in her new humanoid-looking body at a meeting between Valerian, Artanis, and Zagara over something or another along the Zerg Quarantine Zone. I forget what it was about but it still saw the three leaders gathered to discuss it. Somehow she knew that the two of us had met previously and politely inquired on how the two of us met along with our duels against the Ghosts on Korhal," Nova mentioned with a smile at the memory mentioning Kerrigan's last gift to Zagara and her more loyal broodmothers a humanoid-looking body similar to her own former Primal Queen form. As Kerrigan believed that the Swarm needed a leader that had somewhat a bit of humanity in them to truly be capable of interacting with the other races in a peaceful manner.

"From there the two of us would exchange some further talks and general texts with each other over the years. Mainly as Zagara had stumbled onto human strategy games like chess and such which fascinated her and drew me into playing with her," she went on making Kerrigan look on in some interest for this was the last thing she expected from Zagara but at the same time she started to feel pride in her old follower.

"Then our relationship kind of got a bit weird when she found out I was pregnant which fascinated her on several levels which saw her bugging me constantly about the whole thing much to my own frustration with her," she said with a short chuckle and a shake of her head before she nearly groaned at another amusing memory.

"After finding everything about how humans have offspring and how weak they are after birth she literally demanded Valerian to accept some Hunter Killers as bodyguards for me and the baby," she managed to say making Kerrian, who at this point smiled at this story, literally facepalmed and shaking her head with a groan.

"I hope Valerian managed to get across to her that it wouldn't work all that well," Kerrigan pleaded with Nova who laughed with a nod of her head.

"Yes, eventually Valerian along with Stukov managed to convince her how politically unwise it would be for such a move which saw Zagara retract her demand that didn't stop her from visiting the palace off and on through the last couple of months," she replied making Kerrigan breath a sigh of relief before looking over at Nova at the mentioning of another old follower of hers from her time as the new Primal Queen of the Swarm. One that she had helped as well soon after her ascension to be a virtual goddess where she had outright de-infested him along with several other infested humans along her forces.

"Stukov huh, how has he been"?" she managed to inquire after the two shared yet another laughing fit over the whole idea of seeing a large, spiney, Hunter Killer Zerg standing guard over a baby.

"Well he is a key advisor to Valerian now about the UED and does hold various lectures about a few different things at the Dominion's Military Academies, mainly space combat," Nova replied with a nod of her head at this whole thing before noticing her surroundings started to waver a bit which drew Kerrigan's attention.

"Looks like my time with you is running out because you are starting to wake up," Kerrigan mentioned with a sad smile on her face.

"Still I need to mention that I have explore this new universe of yours over the past few months and I have left a data packet explaining a bunch about it in a data pad on your desk which you can give to Valerian. I will also be around this universe for a bit as well so I shall stop by from time to time to see how you are all doing," the other woman explained in a sort of rush making Nova look at her in some interest before sighing that this wasn't just a one-time thing. Then Kerrigan got from the table and started to walk away from her when Nova remembered something that she wanted to know from the former Ghost.

"OH! Do you know what happened with Raynor?" she asked Kerrigan before she could disappear, making her blink at this before outright beaming over at her.

"I needed someone to accompany me on my little exploration of the cosmos, didn't I? Right now he is off doing a quick errand for me but I shall see about having him do something like this with Valerian when he is back because Jim is quite proud of him for everything that he has done since his disappearance not to mention starting a family with you. Still, I must go thanks for telling me about Zagara and Stukov Nova," she mentioned and with that, she was gone. A moment later the mental projection started to disappear and she awoke in her bed in the Imperial Family Quarters onboard the Bucephalus with the worried face of her husband hovering over her and the figures of her personal guards gathered around her bed making Nova roll her eyes at them all before sighing not even noticing Valerian asking her questions.

"I am quite fine Valerian. Just had a little visit from the old Queen Bitch of the Universe explaining what had happened to us all," she mentioned and chuckled at the wide look of surprise on his face before sighing and looking off to the side and the large window that dominated that wall of the quarters. Wondering what this new universe would bring to them, especially her unborn child and any future children between the two of them.

The Office of Vice Admiral Matthew Horner
Korhal Imperial Palace
New Augustgrad, Korhal IV
Terran Dominion, Koprulu Sector
September 11, 2512CE

"Very well, thank you, Commodore, for going out of your way to check on this for me" Vice Admiral Matthew Horner, told the holographic face of Commodore Roger Miller, the man currently in charge of the Terran Dominion's 42nd Battlecruiser Group and the person that the Admiral had personally chosen to command his old command the Battlecruiser Hyperion, a modified example of the aging Behemoth Class Battlecruiser design. He is also one of the few people he could trust to look into the disappearance of the Emperor and the Imperial Guard Flotilla without mentioning anything about it to the media or even the Dominion Senate.

"It is quite alright Admiral, it is the Emperor after all," the man replied with a nod of his holographic head towards him making the Admiral smile a bit weakly at the slightly older man, a man who really should have been in his position instead of a simple independent commander of a small battlecruiser group. However, the man had been captured during a later battle between the old Emperor Arturus's forces and those forces following the then Crown Prince Valerian. He was then neurally resocialized by the order of the Emperor and then given command of one of the new Pride of Augustgrad Class Battlecruisers of his Royal Guard Division. Luckily for him, he had survived the destruction of this ship by Zerg Flyers and was picked up by the post-battle sweeps by forces loyal to Valerian where he went through a lengthy amount of time to recover from not only his injuries but the resocialization process. By the time he recovered, Horner had become a close confidant and an Admiral in the newly reformed Dominion Navy. To pay the man back for his loyalty Horner chose him to command the Hyperion and the small fleet that was gathered around the old battlecruiser.

"Still that was my last shot at locating the Emperor before anyone starts questioning his disappearance," the Admiral said with a sigh and an annoyed frown on his face. For it only had been a couple of days since the disappearance of the Emperor and his Guard Flotilla from the Verge System. Hence, it was going to drop to the general populace and the Senate very soon.

"I doubted that General Vaughn would have let him accompany the Colonization Expedition to the Terminus System, especially with the Empress onboard as well but I do agree it was the best shot that we had," the other man mused himself looking off to one side of the pick up from his side of the communication.

"Agreed, that is why I asked you to check the Terminus System last," the Admiral replied with a nod of his head towards the man for he was quite correct for there was no one onboard the Guard Flotilla who had let Valerian go off on his own. Hell. Horner was sure that Vaughn would have ordered him to be locked in his quarters before letting him do something stupid like accompanying the Terminus Colonial Expedition to the Terminus System for some reason or another. Not that Horner personally thought Valerian would do that with not only his wife onboard but also his unborn child. The Admiral was simply covering all of his bases when ordering the Commodore and the 41st to the Terminus System.

"It does concern me that the ships of my group didn't pick up anything from the Expedition when I arrived in the system itself," the other man mentioned a moment later making the Admiral nod in some agreement for that was quite concerning.

"Which means something happened to them in the Verge System which is even more of a concern," the Admiral replied with a groan and a suppressed curse for that would mean someone or something attacked them in the Verge System before the Expedition Warped out from the system.

"Agreed sir that appears to be the most likely scenario at what happened to them all," Miller replied with his own worried look on his face.

"Still Admiral I shall have the 41st remain on station in the Terminus System for a few more days in case they are just late for some reason or another," the Commodore went on making Horner nod in some agreement with him.

"With that said Commodore I shall get back to you if we hear anything else from anyone about the Emperor," the younger man mentioned after a few moments of silence between the two of them making the older man nod at him.

"Thank you Admiral, Hyperion and 41st logging off," Miller signed off with a salute which Horner replied with his own before staring at the holo display built into his desk with a troubled look on his face.

"Where are you, Valerian? Please be alright," the man said to himself as he rubbed his face with a deep groan before picking up the nearby ornately designed handset for the Palace's own internal communication system before pressing the button to connect to the similar handset in the Imperial Apartments a few levels above this one before placing the handset up to his ear. Wondering what his wife was going to say about all of this for she had been busy with other matters of state when he started to be worried over the Imperial Flotilla not returning from the Verge System. However, he soon frowned in some concern as he didn't hear any sort of ringing sound coming from the handset and he stared down at the handset's control panel with an annoyed look on his face but the button for the Imperial Apartments was lit and everything.

"What in the world?" he mumbled to himself before pressing down on the button again but before he could do anything else he heard a voice that he never thought to hear again, jolting him to look at the door leading to his office.

"I'm sorry to say Matt but Valerian and the people with him can no longer be helped by anyone in the Dominion or anyone else in the Koprulu Sector," the figure of his former Commander, one James Raynor stood leaning against the now opened door with a burning cigarette hanging from his lips and a troubled look on his face.

-o-End-o-
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Post Chapter Notes

And there we go! Chapter One of this story is now finished! After a few different modifications, I had to do with the original version of the idea for this chapter. First, when Zagara of all beings somehow snuck into the story becomes mentioned a bit in the second scene between of Nova and Kerrigan. Mainly as for some strange-ass reason, a now humanoid-looking Zagara being a good friend of Nova. I think that came from a dream I had which had Zagara becoming a close friend of Nova and after being told about human pregnancies would end up demanding on assigning Hunter Killers as guards for the new baby. Much to the horror and a bit of amusement from a few people. Still I still have that tidbit laying around and it may end up becoming the centerpiece of a future omake, or side-story, for it is kind of amusing. Shrug.

Still, this chapter does cover the aftermath of the crossover event to that of the Imperial Guard Flotilla, mostly from the point of view of Valerian though I am not all that sure about having him being mostly on his back during much of the scene. The next chapter will touch on how the civilians actually react to this whole thing though it will not be all that much explored for in all honesty I really do not how to cover something like panicking civilians or anything like that therefore I am going to somewhat gloss over it as I want to move the story along and not get stuck on something. Especially I am really running out of words for this whole Writing Frenzy Event, though I still might just go over my planned sixty thousand words and go on to seventy thousand or so words for the final count. Sigh. Who knows where I end up? EDIT: This chapter has been finished for months but somehow forgot about it due to the holidays and other such issues. Sorry. Hopefully, I shall see about getting the next chapter, which has a couple of scenes already written, finished soon. Though no promises! My muse is a fickle thing, after all!

Whew! That is about it for these notes! I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and now it is time to get writing the next chapter for when things are going to be quite interesting! Till then! Ciao!