>Last time on Freelance Ghost Quest: You make a superb meal with/for Lisa, after which you say goodbye on the planet, where the two of you kiss. The next day, you immediately head to the rendez-vous point with the Omega, Sextus and Quartus joining you, where you find a single small ship. After some confusion, you find out it was cloaking an entire fleet of protoss ships, and you enter a war meeting with Ur’athan and many other protoss, several of which are also High Templars.

“And the Executor we’re supposed to be saving? Where is she?”

“Luckily, she is on the other side of the continent.“ Ur’athan tells you. “The Cerebrate hid itself away quite some distance from her base while focussing most of its forces at the siege, confident she couldn’t break through. True enough as that is, it seems it didn’t expect us to come to the rescue.”

“By the way, the Omega has a lot more firepower than a regular battlecruiser.” You begin, but in the slight pause you use to take a breath, the High Templar cuts in. “Yes, Quartus gave me the specs. It has been incorporated into the battle plan.”

You mull it over for a moment, checking the map and the battle plan for a few more seconds. “Would it be easier if there was a protoss officer on board of the battlecruiser, for coordination of the battle? The crew itself, while sadly mind-broken by my predecessor, will follow their orders if we tell them to.”

The protoss murmur amongst each other for a moment before an older, battle-scarred female veteran steps forward. “I volunteer for this task. My pupil has enough experience to take command of the scout squadrons by himself. I can oversee and coordinate the battle better if I do not have to focus on flying myself.” After this she turns to you. “A most excellent suggestion, young one.” The protoss in the room nod to each other in agreement. She seems to be a popular choice.

“Right, then my final question is this: What will happen once the cerebrate is dead? Will they drop whatever they are doing to avenge it? Will they run wild? I guess it's too much to ask for them to just drop dead…”

There’s a long and uncomfortable pause. Everyone that isn’t looking at you is looking at Ur’athan. Finally, he speaks. “We do not know.”

“You don’t know.”

“No we do not. While we have studied the zerg already, the mere existence of these Cerebrates is still fairly new to us. They will not, as you so hopefully expressed, drop dead, but what they will do is still a mystery. Our scientists speculate that they will either turn feral and attack everything, or just completely lose coordination and start acting like animals. Perhaps your guess of vengeance could be true as well if they still follow their last orders.” He pauses for a moment to let his words sink in. A moment later, he continues.

“Whatever the case, they will be a lot less coherent in strategy and tactics, so eliminating it will liberate the Executor and most likely ease up the fighting around the beast itself so we can get away.”

>Any more questions before we go into the action?
>1. Yes. Write in.
>2. No, let’s go

>>35707479
>>2. No, let’s go

>>35707984
Writing.

“Let’s go then.” The next hour or so, everyone is fully briefed on their part. You spend most of the time checking and double-checking what you’ve been told to do. While the main protoss fleet is distracting the air force, the Arbiter will cover the Omega, half the Scout force and the shuttles will go down to a single hive cluster and assault it directly. You however, along with Sextus, Siladus, the young High Templar Varas and a sizeable escort will use that battle as another distraction to rush past it and to enter the caves where the Cerebrate lies. The squad makes an opening and you use it to destroy the Cerebrate, both physically and psionically.

When the time comes for you to head back to the omega, the protoss woman joins you, and High Templar Varas follows not far behind her.

“We have not been properly introduced. My name is Arana, Veteran Scout squad leader.” the veteran soldier bows her head to you. You nod back to her.

“It’s good to meet you. I hope I can safely leave the Omega in your hands. Well, for a given value of safe of course.”

She looks at you with a puzzled frown. Perhaps your delivery was off, or she has no sense of humour.

“Try not to scratch the paint, will you, we’ve only just had it redone.” Quartus pops in.

An awkward silence confirms your suspicions. No sense of humour. Hell, even you managed to develop one pretty fast once you got out of the confederacy.

The rest of the way is silent until you reach your shuttle. High Templar Varas bows deeply and departs for his own ship. Arana follows you into yours.

>Anything you want to ask or tell her on the way to the battlecruiser?
>1. Tell her about the armaments on the ship.
>2. Tell her about the crew on the ship.
>3. Ask her about her experience in war.
>4. Write in.

>>35708398
>3
>4 You seem to have earned much respect of your peers?
>2
>1

>>35708398

>Tell her about the armanents of the ship
>Tell her about the crew: they know their craft, but better not except a lot of initiative on their part
>Ask her if she's ever, uh, well, seen a battlecruiser in operation

>>35708486
>>35708534
Writing.

As you fly back towards the Omega, you try to strike up conversation with your new guest. “So, have you seen the specs on the Omega?”

“I have seen them, but at the time I was more concerned with my own Scout squadron, so I do not know that much anymore. High Templar Ur’athan has provided me with a copy to study however.” Her face doesn’t betray any kind of emotion.

“Well, unlike most battlecruisers we don’t have a Yamato Cannon, but we’ve got lots and lots of smaller guns to make up for it.” You give her a quick rundown of most of the guns and their position. for some of it you have to check your own recordings to be sure, but you manage.

After a while, you get to the next point you want to address with her. “I’ve mentioned the crew were mind-broken in the meeting, but let me elaborate a bit. We’ve been working to try and restore them, but it’s slow and tedious work. We haven’t actually seen ship-to-ship combat since they’ve been mindripped, so I’m not entirely sure what to expect, but I doubt they’ll show a lot of initiative. They’re pretty much self-sufficient, but I expect that for active combat you’ll have to give specific orders to get what you want.”

Arana nods. She’s sitting on one of the chairs, but she’s too tall to properly fit on it, so her knees reach up fairly high. Her elbows rest on them while her head hangs down a bit. Her left arm is lying horizontally over her knees while she’s scratching a scar on her temple with her right. By Protoss standards, you don’t think she’s good looking. Scary looking though? Definitely.

“Have you ever seen a battlecruiser in action?” you ask her.

“I have. I was in New Gettysburg, fighting Zerg, when the Terrans attacked us.” She replies. ”Almost as if they wanted the swarm to reach the planet. My squadron took down several cruisers before the order to retreat was given.”

“You seem to have earned much respect of your peers, I’m beginning to see why.” You say.

“You don’t go through over 600 years of active service without making a name for yourself. In my prime, they used to call me the Winged Wraith.”

Six-hundred? Holy shit, she must be at least seven-hundred years old, probably more around eight-hundred! “That’s… A long time.” You manage to blurt out.”

“It is. I’ve fought in many wars. Too many if you ask me.”

The silence after that comment of hers lasts until you reach the Omega. Once there, there is a frantic preparation of the ship. Many of the protoss shuttles of the ground force will be docking in the Omega until you reach low orbit as to reduce the risk of losing troops on the way down. Quartus goes ahead and more intimately acquaints Arana with the workings of the Omega than you could on your way here. With not much else to do until the preparations are complete, you manage to ge a good meal inside you, and go to inspect the shuttles landing in the bays.

You’re about to leave the hangar when a protoss calls out for you. “Artemis!”You recognise Siladus’s voice and turn around.

He’s accompanied by the High Templar Varas. It seems like the six shuttles in this docking bay are the ones you and your escort will use. Your own shuttle is too frail and its cloaking won’t help at all with so many zerg Overlords flying around.

“You’ve seen each other at the meeting, but allow me to properly introduce you.” Siladus says. “High Templar Varas, this is Artemis the Ghost, as you well know. Artemis, this is High Templar Varas, the most recent of Ur’athan’s pupils to attain the rank of High Templar.”

“It is an honour to meet you, Artemis.” Varas bows. “I have heard many great things about you from our teacher, and I have taken the liberty of watching in on some of the trainings when you were with us. You truly are remarkable?”

>>35709358

>Reaction?
>1. It’s not really much of a big deal. It was mostly the Xel’naga tampering that got you this far.
>2. Thank him, ask him about his own time with Ur’athan.
>3. Write in.

>Also, feel free to add in any questions you have for him.

>>35709386

>Thank him, mention that it's mostly the Xel'naga tampering and Ur'athan's training
>Ask him about his experience with the Zerg, how this operation compares to others he's taken part in

>>35709662
Writing.

“Thank you. It’s mostly because of the Xel’naga tampering with me, and High Templar Ur’athan’s training thought.” You reply.

“Ah yes, the Xel’naga’s involvement. I’ve heard of that. Did it hurt?”

A flash of pain flashes in your memory. Over a month ago by now, but still fresh in your memory. “Yes. It did.” You leave it at that.

“My apologies, I did not mean to pry.” He looks genuinely sorry.

“It’s ok.” Your turn to ask questions, you think. “Have you had any experience with the zerg before?”

“Yes. Gnarly creatures. I’ve faced them in combat several times. Lost some good friends to them. I intend to return the favour.” He seems lost in thoughts for a moment.

“So how does this operation compare to any previous ones you’ve taken part in?” You ask.

“It’s much bigger. I’ve been fortunate enough to avoid most of the large scale conflicts so far, but with the Zerg’s grip of the sector growing stronger I’m afraid this is just one of many yet to come.” Varas replies.

“Well, provided you fancy High Templar survive of course.” Siladus interjects with a cheerful tone in his voice. “Ah, it’s been too long since I’ve truly faced a decent challenge. I wonder if my psi blades even still work.” He winks at you. Varas almost explodes, but something stops him.

That something is the laughter of several nearby Protoss. You can see Siladus’ stern look. He’s mostly trying to raise morale. He knows fully well many of them won’t be there for the return trip.

Suddenly the intercom blares to life, a robotic voice telling everyone to man their battle stations. You see Sextus enter through the doors a few moments later. You all enter the same shuttle while around you all the other protoss follow suit and board their own. Moments later, the hangar is empty save for some crew and the shuttles themselves. A warning claxon sounds, and the same voice warns everyone for an imminent jump.

-----

As the gut-wrenching feeling of the jump passes, you hear the barking of orders to the crew in your mind. Unable to use the intercom without a physical voice, it seems Arana has resorted to ship-wide telepathic broadcasting.

It’ll be a while before you reach the surface and unload. You silently hope everything goes allright.

>1. Ask Sextus for his opinion on the mission. You can decipher most of his gestures by now.
>2. Ask Siladus about the probable threats on the ground.
>3. Write in.

>My apologies for the long writing times. There's just fairly long parts without much character interaction in it. After the next part there should be a lot more action.

>>35710440

Don't worry about it OP. In fact I wouldn't mind if you wanted to adjourn the quest due to low participation if you so prefer.

>Ask Siladus about the probable threats on the ground

>>35710564
Yeah, I think I will. It's my own fault really, I missed my schedule several times, so less people are bound to show up.
It's a mixture of plain forgetfulness and being really busy with school and other IRL stuff.

Next thread will be next tuesday again then. I'll keep this and any possible future question in mind for the start of the next thread, as usual.

>>35710658

Cheers for the thread OP! I'm looking forward to seeing where the tides of battle will flow.

>>35710658
Fucking phone. Just try to set up a time for the thread and post any schedule changes to twitter. Glad you're still powering along.

>>35710440
>>2. Ask Siladus about the probable threats on the ground.
Sorry I couldn't make it, timezones are shit so I just woke up

>>35710440
>1. Ask Sextus for his opinion on the mission. You can decipher most of his gestures by now.
>2. Ask Siladus about the probable threats on the ground.
>3. Ask if we have a reasonable way of leaving after we attack and kill the Cerebrate.

Bump?