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Echoes of Death	By : straha86 Category: +S through Z > Starcraft Views: 3266 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own, nor do I profit from the Starcraft or Borderlands universe.

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The striking woman who had been standing near Raynor with the party that greeted them stalked towards Michael, for all evidence, murder written on her face.
"Hey, Mike, wheres my money, and more importantly, wheres my gun."
He could see her hand flexing, as if getting ready to reach for the non existent weapon that Michael had won off her all those months ago on Pandora. He smirked, wanting to egg her on, as was so fun back in the day, "Oh come on Lil, you know I won fare and square."
"You cheated, how is that fare and square." Venom was dripping from he words, and all could see her shaking with undisguised rage.
"Lilith, everyone was cheating, that was the whole purpose of the game, to cheat," Michael had opted for a slightly less ornery tone. He had seen this woman fight, and even unarmed, and unarmored, he would only hesitantly engage her in a serious confrontation. "You simply didn't cheat as well as me."
She seemed to deflate somewhat at the statement that her skills at plying the cards was not as impressive as it could have been. She glanced for the first time at Dash'r, and Michael saw only the dimmest degree of surprise at seeing the alien, which was surprising, as in the UED the existence of intelligent aliens had been strictly classified when he had last heard anything.
"Why are you here Lilith, most people not high up in the military or government don't even know about this little off shoot from Earth."
Lilith seemed to wilt, "Pandora was attacked, I ran across an AI at one of the dig sites just before it happened. I got as many people out as I could, but the whole planet was over run."
Michael paled, no large scale attack had ever taken place inside the EUD, and Pandora, well inside the frontier, was,while not safe, at least well protected from outside threats.
"The vault was a sham," she said, drifting into her memories, "It was a prison, not the key to limitless power or wealth or any of that shit. Whoever attacked, these guys,"she gestured back towards where Raynor and Horner were listening, "Mumbled something about a hybrid. Whatever they are, right after I had just shut the damned thing back away let it loose. I got about 400 people out, and the AI told me to come here."
400 people, out of a colony of millions, rang through Michael's head. Pandora wasn't an easy planet to live on, and yet he had no doubt that the hybrid's would have no issues moving through the hostile environment to exterminate every human on the entire planet.
Dash'rs telepathic voice sounded in the minds of those present, "It is as you had been warned, the Protoss were well aware that the threat had not yet ended, and we told you this." Michael had agreed at the time, that more hybrids, and whoever created them was still a threat, but on a practical level, humanity in general could have done very little to hunt them down, and would have been able to offer no assistance to Earth or it's scattered colonies.
"We know, and now" Matt said, speaking up for the first time after checking a watch, "We have a meeting with Emperor Mengsk, Michael, we need you, as one of the few people who have been involved with the UED on a level greater then local governments, to accompany us."
The clear dismissal of Dash'r was apparent, as the only non human present, he would not be taking part in the meeting, and Michael was about to object when Dash'rs spoke to him, unheard by any others in the corner of his mind where their connection lingered at all times, "I need to inform my people of these events, I will be fine on my own until your return."
Michael just nodded discretely to the Dark Templar, and moved to follow the rest of the humans to a nearby command center, where the meeting was to be taking place. Dash'r stared after his lover for several moments, before he allowed the light to once again bend around his form, rendering himself invisible to most forms of detection. He slowly made his way to the ship, intent on informing the various members of the Protoss leadership that the hybrids had once again made themselves known, in the worst possible location and at the worst possible time. The planned invasion of Auir had been set to begin soon, and they would have very few troops with which they could aid the humans if the attacks had been on a large scale, even if the UED allowed any assistance from the Koprulu sector, or it's alien denizens.
Not all the UED would turn him or his people away, Michael was evidence enough of that. The human that had been so engrained into his mind and soul in the last few months was almost a direct contradiction to the writings that had been forwarded to him by others. Most Protoss who had studied them from afar viewed them to be simple, and violent. Merely clever predators. The fierce intelligence, coupled with the ability to restrain the violent tendencies that were engrained onto humans on a basic biological level set him apart, but not so much as he would have thought. Indeed, his time spent amongst humans had demonstrated that humans were vastly underestimated by those first Protoss who had studied them.
He approached the hatch leading to his ship. The little robot that Michael had been objecting so strenuously to had been skittering around on it's single wheel, imitating boredom as the humans around ignored it. It had taken to hopping short distances, before spinning in circles. When Dash'r had gotten close,even though still invisible, the robot turned to him, and slowly pivoted, following him.
"Excuse me good sir, but the angel on the ship," it said, pointing upwards, likely to a ship stationed in orbit, "Wanted me to relay a message to you. But I don't understand, so I decided to explore my artistic side."
Dash'r stared in confusion, the words had a mild psionic touch, similar to Protoss technology, and yet it didn't quite seem to becoming from the primitive little machine. He stared at the drawings underneath the robots wheels. While crudely drawn, the Protoss glyphs were still readable.
"I tried," was written in the dirt. He sent out a weak psionic pulse, that wiped the crude drawing from the dust. He entered the ship, unable to communicate his confusion to the human robot, to make his report and to meditate on the confusing message given to him.
In the command center, Michael was busy beating his head against the metal conference table. The general consensus was that the UED could either deal with their own problems, or rot. The only voices of decent were from Lilith, Michael, and Raynor. Even Matt Horner, who had followed Raynor through hell and back was voicing his reservations.
"All I'm saying is that the UED would not take kindly to a military presence sent by the Dominion," was his neutral response to the questioning look of his superior.
Emperor Valerian Mengsk, voiced the practical implications only seconds later, "Our fleet is still not built up enough to launch any kind of large scale operation that far away, Commander."
Raynor's diplomatic skills seemed lacking, and Michael gestured for a moment to speak, hopefully it would give Jim enough time to cool his temper, "What about a small expedition, recon, find out what's going on, get more information, and report back, it doesn't have to be a full scale invasion." His compromise seemed to catch the ears of the people in the conference room. Raynor clearly wanted more, yet with no support from the government, he would be forced to use only his own still depleted troops and supplies.
One of Valerian’s aides, a general whose name Michael had already forgotten, spoke up in support, "A small force could easily penetrate UED space undetected, and we have some new hardware that could use testing in conditions other then a lab. And it is always a good idea to keep an eye on ones enemies, we should be launching expeditions into Directorate space regardless."
Michael was only half pleased at the support. The UED was not truly an enemy, but if it got an expedition funded and sent back to Pandora, then he would not object.
"What type of hardware are we talking?" Was Matt's response. Michael gazed at the captain, and tried to pierce the blank expression of the man, but could not read anything from the neutral face.
"Its a large scale cloak, reverse engineered from Protoss technology, with it we could render a battle cruiser invisible for short periods of time."
Raynor looked gleeful, "Well then, install it on the Wings Of Liberty and we'll test it out ourselves."
"Very well," said the new emperor, "Your troops are still somewhat depleted, would you object to a small detachment from one of the Dominions squadrons as backup?"
"I'll take all the help I can get, Junior."
The meeting broke up shortly thereafter, allowing Michael to departs before he could get roped into any more diplomatic wrangling. His com chimed on his way out of the command center, highlighting a small text from Raynor indicating that he and Dash'r would both be welcome, and that the time of launch was still being hammered out.
He approached the small Protoss ship, and was stumped by the erratic behavior of the robot that was still making itself into as great a spectacle as ever. He raised his pistol, intent on silencing the irritating thing once and for all.
"Don't," rang out Dash'rs voice, stilling Michael before he could fire, "There is something unique about that machine."
Dash'r emerged from the shadows near the ship, his eyes trained firmly on the robot, and Michael wondered briefly why he had to let the thing go on pretending to live. He looked questioningly to Dash'r, hoping for an answer.
"It relayed a message to me, in my own language, yet I can not ask it for more details, as it only responds to voice."
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Echoes of Death