Fanfic / We Stand Unified

The fanfic's cover image

"We must prepare for the possibility of total war."

— Valerian Mengsk, referring to the End War

We Stand Unified is a StarCraft fanfic written by Fangtom. The story follows the trials of Khalis, a female high templar, who grows in power and fights alongside her protoss companions against both old and new enemies as Amon unleashes his hybrid apocalypse.

The fanfic, We Stand Unified contains examples of the following tropes:

• Adaptational Badass: Kaldalis was already portrayed as a badass in the Legacy of the Void cinematic trailer, but this fanfic takes extra measures to chronicle new acts of heroism. Particularly when he severed himself from Amon's control of the Khala, something almost every other Khalai protoss failed to do.
• Alien Among Us: William is a protoss living with his terran friend Lexi on Korhal, having adopted terran speech patterns, technology, and style of warfare.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • Nathaniel is revealed to be the Magistrate, the player commander from Starcraft I's first terran campaign, hiding among Haven's refugee population.
  • Duran doesn't appear again until the epilogue campaign in Legacy of the Void. In this story, he shows up as a major agent of Amon during the Battle of Haven.
• Cool Old Guy: Kaldalis is persistently portrayed as having an advanced age for a protoss. That doesn't stop him from single-handedly slaying a rampaging ultralisk with audacity and some acrobatics.
• Cool Starship: The Phantom is a heavily modified dropship owned by William and Lexi, outfitted with a cloaking device, long-range scanners, an A.I. adjutant, a nose and rear auto-turret, and has all the furnishings of a mobile home.
• Deer in the Headlights: Without the Khala giving the support of millions of brave souls, Khalis is really just a civilian who's never fought a real battle all her life. She nearly completely broke-down in fear in her second encounter with the Zerg, after losing the Khala.
• Fantastic Racism: Khalis demonstrated biased attitudes towards terrans as a primitive race lacking honor and virtue, though she does hold James Raynor as an exceptional terran.
• Grand Theft Me: Spoilers for Legacy of the Void, Almost the entire Khalai population is subsumed by Amon hijacking the Khala.
• Headbutting Heroes: Nova and William hold a serious grudge towards each other over some past event, with enough hate to spark brawls and psychic "arm wrestling".
• Heroic BSoD: Khalis suffered from this after losing the Khala's light and trying to fight the Zerg a second time. Memories of the Zerg sacking Aiur triggered her into a crying mess, right in front of a hostile hydralisk.
• Heroic Wannabe: Khalis was a librarian who's never fought a battle until the beginning of the story, and yet aspires to become a powerful, stalward champion of the protoss. This drive makes her hotblooded and prone to charging headfirst into battle.
• Home Sweet Home: William'd rather stay home with Lexi than go gallivanting on dangerous adventures with "aliens".
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Or as normal as a protoss can be in a terran society. William's main motivation seems to be securing a financially stable life with Lexi away from the constant warfare plaguing the sector. Doing dangerous odd jobs for the Emperor is one thing, suddenly obligated to stop the Omnicidal Maniac is another.
• Indy Ploy:
  • During the Haven arc when Corona trashed the circuit box diverting power to the defense grid, Khalis had the insane idea to psi storm the entire grid back online.
    • After the defense-in-depth strategy failed, Nathaniel tricked Gestefield, sending him on a wild goose chase to buy time.
• Insistent Terminology: William often refers to the Daelaam protoss as "firstborn", usually in a scathing or derogatory tone, despite himself being protoss.
• The Lancer: Val'idin is this to Khalis. Culture-wise, he's Nerazim while Khalis is Khalai, the ones who persecuted his people for rejecting the Khala. Character-wise, he's a soldier/Ninja who prefers tact and subtlety, and often tries to influence or rein in the Proud Warrior Race Girl who prefers a more direct approach.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Khalis tried this once in a bid to break past the Zerg to reach the Spear of Adun. It failed horribly when PTSD kicks in. Zig-zagged since she no longer had the Khala to support her mentally and spiritually (she fought decently in a previous battle against the zerg) but clearly ignored Val'idin's warnings.
• Living Legend: James Raynor is this to Khalis, who like most of the Daelaam deeply respects him.
• Mayfly–December Friendship: Implied by Lexi to be something her friend William fears down the road - he can live up to a millennia as a protoss while she's just an ordinary terran.
  Lexi: "I know what's eating at him. He's afraid; doesn't know what to he'll do in like around 60 years or so. You know?" (After William complained the average terran lifespan to be 60-100.)
• Meaningful Name: Fjellhavn, Haven's capital, directly translates to "mountain-port" in Norwegian. It houses several docking bays built in cliffs and is Haven's only major starport.
  • Khalis is spelled similarly to "Khala" or "Khalai", both aspects of her pride and identity. It's also the same name as the Khalis crystal.
• Morality Chain: Besides getting paid by Valerian, William only bothered to rescue and later help the protoss because Lexi wanted to "do the right thing".
• Ninja: As a dark templar, Val'idin is skilled in stealth tactics and can cloak, though he's also comfortable with fighting in the open.
• Oh, Crap!: The Dominion leadership's reaction upon learning how just how powerful the possessed Golden Armada really is.

• Pride: Khalis is overflowing with pride in her people, and doesn't take kindly when that gets insulted.
• Put on a Bus: Khalis' brother Farus was corrupted by Amon within the Khala and abandoned to the Golden Armada.
• Revolvers Are Just Better: William slings a revolver and likes to point it at people he dislikes.

• Survivor Guilt: Feeling helpless when the Zerg first sacked Aiur is the motivation for Khalis' heroic drive.
• Token Human: Lexi is the only terran thus far in the protoss squad.
• Too Dumb to Live: Ignoring the advice and instructions of a seasoned soldier in a combat scenario, when you yourself have little to no experience, will almost certainly get you killed.
• You Have Failed Me: Duran eventually had Corona execute Admiral Gestefield for his failure to take Haven.
• Weapon Specialization: Each of the four main characters have unique weapons.
  • Khalis keeps a glaive cannon after losing her psionic powers.
  • Val'idin spins a double-ended purple warp scythe.
  • William slings a revolver and likes to point it at people he dislikes. Hasn't actually used it thus far...
  • Kaldalis, being a zealot, has two psi-blades, and is very good at using them.
• Worf Had the Flu: Khalis's psionic power was lost after Kaldalis forced an energy feedback loop on her in a bid to exorcise Amon's possession, and apparently fried a part of her brain. She's then reduced to using a glaive cannon in situations where she could have easily psi-stormed masses of enemies to death.
  • Kaldalis is hit similarly from the feedback loop stunt mentioned above, which disabled half (More like one and a half) of his three hearts, reducing him from a One-Man Army to a cripple prone to fatigue and exertion.