The following section contains information from StarCraft: Retribution.
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The Protoss Crusaders, also known as the Crusaders for the Stone, are a force of protoss warriors led by Judicator Kizrath. During the Great War, the force embarked on a quest for the Argus Stone, a xel'naga artifact located on Aridas.[1]
History[]
Landfall on Aridas[]
The Protoss Crusade was a group of Khalai warriors of the Protoss Empire formed during the Great War and lead by Judicator Kizrath. They were formed to retrieve the legendary xel'naga relic named the Argus Stone from the planet of Aridas. However, the local terran Aridas Colonial Militia, under the newly formed Terran Dominion, had begun to investigate the xel'naga ruins on the planet. Kizrath and the Crusade's executor struck a series of ruins under investigation by the local terrans, and claimed them. However, Kizrath discovered they were a conduit to a greater set of ruins on the other side of a nearby river. The Crusade broke through the militia's defensive line near the river, and claimed the ruins.[1]
However, another force arrived in search of the Argus Stone. The Zerg Crusaders, seeking the Argus Stone to create a Supreme Being, arrived on the planet, and began engaging the local terran forces. Caught in the middle, the Crusade used this opportunity to weaken one of their enemies.[2]
The Crusade sent a force of zealots to destroy the body of a cerebrate controlling the zerg forces. However, when they arrived in the cave they were met with heavy zerg resistance. The protoss forces found a team from the Aridian militia who were cut off in the caverns, and offered their aid to the Crusaders. Together, the force cut through the zerg hives and destroyed the body of the cerebrate.[3]
The Crusade sent a team of zealots into the maintenance ducts of the militia's main base, which began to expose a weakness in their lines. However, the militia counterattacked, sending a team of raiders to attack the Crusader's research outposts. The Executor of the Protoss Crusaders reinforced the outpost and drove off the raiders, then engaging and defeating the Aridian support forces and science corps.[4]
A Tide Unstoppable[]
In spite of the victories of the primary bulk of the Crusaders, other fronts began to crumble under pressure. One of the protoss fronts began to crumble, allowing an Aridian force to slip past the protoss lines and establish a stronghold between them and the ruins of Taledon, where the Argus Stone was being kept. This mass of terran forces were not enough to stop the Executor, who destroyed their bases.[5]
The Aridians were maintaining their defense however, due to a supply station in orbit above Aridas defended by the Terran Dominion force Jenson's Raiders under Jenson Archimedes. The protoss assaulted the platform, destroying the defenders and cutting off supplies to the surface of the planet.[6]
With their supplies gone, the Protoss Crusade struck the final terran stronghold barring their way to Taledon. The stronghold was destroyed with overwhelming force.[7] However, the militia still had a considerable number of defenders in Taledon itself. The protoss fought through the Aridian ranks, confronting the ghost agents that defended the ruins itself. The protoss destroyed the ruins, and Judicator Kizrath navigated his scout fighter to retrieve the Argus Stone. With the Stone in hand, the protoss had succeeded their mission on Aridas.[8]
The Crusaders made their way to link up with their fleet. However, a considerable number of zerg barred their way, as well as a force of militia ghosts that continued to harass them. Kizrath broke through their lines, and met with the Escort, which aided them in wiping out the zerg in the area. However, the Escort Leader informed Kizrath that the Conclave ordered them to prioritize the zerg over the retrieval of the stone, and thus the Crusaders would be stranded on Aridas. With nowhere else to go, the Protoss Crusade made preparations to use the stone's power on Aridas itself.[9]
Archimedes Strikes Back[]
The protoss found a new threat in the form of Jenson Archimedes and his newly requisitioned Terran Dominion battalion. Archimedes sought the stone, and knew it had been captured by Kizrath. The Protoss Crusaders began to engage the Zerg Crusaders, and Archimedes slipped a group of scientists past their lines to study the ruins they had captured.[10]
During this time, a tribe of the Crusade's forces fell under the control of a cerebrate that had captured xel'naga technology. The Dominion struck the cerebrate, and killed all protoss under its control.[11]
Meanwhile, one of the crusade's orbital staging platforms came under attack when the Aridian Colonial Militia unleashed a nuclear bombardment on the platform. Jenson's Raiders launched a cleanup effort on the platform, wiping out all protoss structures and forces that survived the nuclear barrage.[12]
The Crusade then captured a massive vein of minerals hidden in a valley. The Dominion attempted to send in a mining team, but the protoss cut them off from the valley. Jenson's Raiders sent an assault force to relieve the mining team, and together the group pushed into the protoss position, taking the vein and forcing them out of the valley.[13]
Meanwhile, the protoss began to warp in a temple from Aiur in order to channel the power of the stone. Archimedes caught wind of this, and assaulted a series of ruins occupied by the protoss. These did not contain the stone however, but forced the protoss back to the main temple.[14] Archimedes launched an assault on the protoss's temple, and destroyed it, causing untold devastation to the area surrounding it. In the chaos, Archimedes navigated his vessel into the temple and retrieved the stone.[15]
The Swarm Supreme[]
With the stone in terran hands, the Zerg Crusaders redoubled their efforts both against Jenson and the Protoss Crusaders. The Protoss Crusaders launched an offensive against a Dominion position, which the zerg took advantage of by attacking while they were engaged with one another. Due to the overwhelming zerg presence, the terran and protoss forces allied to ward off the zerg, but the protoss were eventually overrun.[16]
The protoss began their counterattack on fringe zerg hives, putting some of the zerg position in peril. The zerg reinforced their ranks, and during the battle the protoss were cut off by a large Dominion attack. In the resulting battle, the zerg wiped out both forces and secured their hive cluster.[17]
With the tide turning in the zerg's favor, and the zerg having found the location of the Argus Stone, the terran and protoss forces made a desperate alliance to halt the zerg, defending the entrance to the laboratory housing the Stone. The defense was unsuccessful, and the zerg entered the base.[18] In the chaos, the terran defenders betrayed their protoss allies, capturing groups of them in the lab. The zerg cut through them as well as the terrans, and retrieved the stone.[19]
In order to prevent the zerg from gaining the Argus Stone, the terran and Protoss Crusaders allied once again to cut off their escape. The alliance engaged the zerg on a terran barge leaving the planet's orbit. The attack was not successful, and the zerg escaped with the stone to Char.[20]
Desperate, the Protoss Crusaders launched an attack on Char, which was overwhelmed by the zerg forces there.[21] In a final push, the Terran Dominion and Protoss Crusaders united their forces in one final attack to destroy the chrysalis housing the Supreme Being, which was channeling the energies of the Argus Stone. The attack was unsuccessful.[22]
Known Members[]
References[]
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