Countless void shade drop pods poured down.
“All units, intercept those pods!”
The Allied forces on the ground did their best to face upward. All three types of Warden striders had the ability to shoot up. S-1s and S-2s had to rely on their numbers due to the caliber of their weapons. S-3s didn't share the same problem. Their 330mm cannons were capable of wiping an entire drop pod off the face of the world with a single shot. With the help of Warden targeting algorithms, these striders barely missed.
In the Purifier lines, instigators and adepts fired into the air happily. On the other side, millions of zealots and vanguards watched in boredom as ascendants, slayers, and wrath walkers unloaded into the air. Even the most skilled zealot couldn’t jump into the air and cut through drop pods on the way down.
Narud did his best. He knew the moment he decided to stand with Jean, he and Amon have become sworn enemies. If the platform fell and Kerrigan was killed, then Amon would surely have his head as well. The dark god wasn’t known for showing forgiveness. Millions of ground units from all three races were put together by Narud and thrown into battle.
The firepower on the ground was plenty, but once again, there were too many enemies.
Out of the tens of thousands of drop pods in the first wave, only twelve thousand landed safely. Void shades poured out fearlessly.
In one of the pods closest to Jean, five zealots and two stalkers walked out of a terran drop pod. Protoss had a more advanced warping mechanism, but it was impossible to send warp prisms over to the platform and have them remain in phasing mode safely for long. This forced Amon to put his protoss units in less advanced drop pods, just like the terran and the zerg.
“Terminate the landing parties!” Jean ordered as she charged toward that tiny group of protoss. She didn't need to get into the fight this early, but with the number of enemies she was facing, she felt like she needed to warm up.
The first void shade zealot charged at her. Jean faced her foe without faltering. Both slashed their weapons forward, but only Jean remained standing. The void shade zealot collapsed as Jean’s plasma blade cut through his shield, armor, and separated his lower body from his upper one. Two more zealots struck down. Jean blocked their blades with her own weapons before suddenly kicking one of the zealots in the chest with her full strength. A girl kicking a two meter tall alien looked funny, but no one was laughing as Jean literally shattered the zealot’s body with her immense physical strength. Pulling her blade back, she decapitated the second zealot. The two stalkers opened fire at her as the two zealots left started charging as well. Jean tilted her body, dodging the two shots, before pulling out her particle disruptors. She fired multiple shots at the two stalkers, melting through their shield and armor. Another zealot jumped at her. Jean reached forward and stuck the participle disruptor to as close to the zealot’s head as possible before repeatedly pulling the trigger. The first shot was deflected at point blank range by the plasma shield. The second went through the shield and burned its way through the zealot’s forehead.
The final zealot collapsed two seconds later. Cause of death: Missing a head.
The chaos around the platform started to disappear. The first wave of void shades was slaughtered by the millions of Warden, Tal'darim, and Purifier.
But no one was smiling.
In the air, the second wave of pods was descending already. With the massive casualties in the Allied fleet, the vast majority of the pods went through safely. The batteries in the asteroid belt were gone. The ground units tried their best, but the pods were just too many and too fast.
Tens of thousands of drop pods smashed into the platform. Just their landing created chaos and casualties. Jean watched as two Tal’darim zealots and an adept happened to be in the way of one of the pods. The drop pod slammed into the three Tal’darim and crushed them, along with their plasma shield and their armor. The amount of momentum was just too great to handle. Of course, the pods went up in flames as well.
Hundreds of thousands of void shades poured out of those pods.
“All Warden units by my command! Forward! Exterminate all hostile void shade units!” Jean commanded.
“Affirmative!” Two hundred thousand Warden units replied simultaneously as they marched forward, gunning down any enemies that were in their way.
“Purifiers! Do your duty! Purify all void shades that serve Amon!” At the same time, Delta went on the Purifier tactical net.
“Yes Executor!”
Legionnaires ignited their blades and launched themselves at the enemies on the ground. Over three meters tall, these giant, metal zealots towered over most of the units inside the relatively small drop pods. Marines were cut in two with a single strike. Zealots and banelings were literally stepped on and crushed. Void shade zealots and marauders lasted around two strikes in front of the legionnaires before being reduced to basic void energy.
“Tal’darim! Your Highlord wants Amon’s blood! Do not disappoint me!”
“We strike against the Highlord’s foe!”
Ten million Tal’darim obeyed as the sea of red swarmed over the countless dots of black on the platform.
Void shades put up a strong fight. Most armies in the material world would crumble when they were charged at by millions of the best warriors in the sector, but the mindless puppets of Amon held their ground. In one case, over two hundred drop pods that landed in close proximity had their units converge. Thousands of marines, marauders, and zealots covered over twenty siege tanks, which started unloading on the Wardens. The damage they did was insignificant in the grand scale of things, but this represented a terrible trend.
“All G-1s units, follow me…”
Just as Jean was about to lead her personal G-1 army into battle, another army of void shades suddenly came out from the side and overwhelmed the small group of Amon’s void shades. Both sides were of the same construct, but the attackers had ultralisks, thors, and colossi while the defenders’ greatest firepower were siege tanks.
Narud. The lesser Xel’naga was as worried about the result of this battle as Jean and Kerrigan.
But, unlike the first wave, the second wave of pods took a while to be eradicated. As the ground forces were doing that, the third wave has already landed.
Another hundreds of units were smashed to death by the drop pods. It was not the most honorable way to go down.
Another one hundred thousand void shades entered battle. This time, the Allied casualty started to rise. Formations were broken. Squads and squads of units were cut off and overran.
Jean turned to Viper and Zeratul.
“You two stay with Kerrigan. Protect her no matter what. I’ll leave half my G-1s with you.”
“Where are you going?” Viper asked.
“To fight. Before you object, both you and him are not the frontal assault type. I am.” Jean gave Viper a small smile. “Keep Kerrigan safe. That’s the most important thing right now.”
Viper nodded.
“I will not let the Queen of Blades fall.” Zeratul reassured. The elder Nerazim still felt odd. Who knows, several years after the Brood War, he would be protecting his greatest enemy and the killer of her matriarch?
As 100 G-1 units circled around Kerrigan, Jean turned to Delta and Nyon.
“Lead squads of your men and keep the void shades from gathering. We cannot allow them to form up and overwhelm us.”
Delta nodded.
“You better be right about this, Jean.” Nyon commented as he drew his blades. “Some of my people will be extremely angry if this is all for nothing.”
“When does the Highlord ever need the understanding of his people?”
“Ahhhh...I hope you can retain this tone after the battle.” Nyon smirked before turning to his elite guards. “Follow me and kill every single one of Amon’s pathetic pawns! They shall scream under our blades!” He left with his supplicants and blood hunters.
Delta departed as well. Hundreds of elite legionnaires followed her.
Jean turned her gaze at a dozen drop pods heading her way.
100 Warden Ghost Units were right on her heels.
As Amon’s forces kamikazed at Jean’s Allied forces, the dark god himself resided on a platform of his own, completely away from the actual battlefield. Despite that, he could still sense what was going on. After all, this was the Void, his homefront.
He wasn’t too happy to see something.
“Void shades out of my control...Narud.” Amon realized when seeing opposing void shades slaughtering his forces. “You treacherous fool...I should’ve dealt with you myself.” He knew this shouldn’t come as a surprise. Narud turned against the rest of the Xel’naga in favor of his life, so why did he think Narud wouldn’t turn his coat again for the same reason?
Every second, he could sense Kerrigan’s power amplifying. The Queen of Blades has turned from an entity he could ignore to a presence he needed to be careful against, and her level of threat was still constantly increasing. Another half an hour, and she would emerge a god.
More importantly, if Narud was allowed to live and Kerrigan’s transformation was successful, it would be two Xel’naga against one. Last he checked, two was more than one. At his power level, it was pretty difficult to fight at a disadvantage in numbers. He would near certainly lose the fight.
He had to take out Narud, no matter the cost.
Orders were passed down.
The fight in the sky was getting more and more bloodier. Ships were exploding every second. Countless fighters from all the races fought against the void shades without giving an inch of ground. F-1s, mirages, and phoenixes cruised through the sky, dodging projectiles and firing their own batteries and missiles at the void shades. Hordes and hordes of mutalisks, corruptors, and scourges ravaged across the field. Unfortunately, the flyer count for the “good” guys was dropping at an alarming rate. Zerg hordes were surrounded and terminated. Even mechanical starfighters like F-1s eventually met their end due to issues that couldn’t be solved.
No amount of programming or agility could help when you run out of energy or when the enemies literally have enough ships to surround you 360 degree and open fire at you at the same time.
Already, the Warden Fleet and the Purifier Fleet have taken more damage than all the casualties they took from before combined. The armadas Jean spent so much time to piece together and preserve was being battered down and crippled. If Jean could feel emotions, she would be heartbroken.
The casualties have forced the C-1 units commanding the Warden fleet to switch up the strategy. The entire fleet was forced to take a short ranged jump to behind the Purifier fleet to keep itself from being completely demolished. They were still a thorn in the side of the void shades, but inevitably, the line of defense was broken, and Amon’s fleet had a tiny window to descend directly on the platform below.
This looked bad, but the C-1 did this for a reason. If the Warden fleet was to stand its ground, its firepower and ships would be stretched to thin. They would be broken through and completely destroyed. Pull back, and the Warden fleet could keep up a net of firing.
Unlike the Purifier Fleet and the Death Fleet, both of which contained hundreds of capital vessels, the Warden Fleet barely have over a hundred ships at the moment. They couldn’t keep up with the casualties for too long. If things keep going this way, then at the end of the day, Jean’s prized Warden Fleet might be completely destroyed.
Using the opening, small squads of Amon’s ships were able to get to the platform. They were mostly carriers and battlecruisers. In the air, a handful of them was nothing. But on the platform, they represented a dire threat.
Three battlecruisers and two carriers were the first to come.
Jean was ready.
Two hundred S-3 striders formed two phalanxes of ten by ten. All of them had their 330mm cannons aimed at the breach. They were the best anti-air firepower Jean has got in her Warden forces.
“Fire!” A C-1 in front of the phalanxes sent an order through the Warden network.
All two hundred striders fired at once. Immediately, two of the three battlecruisers shook and fell apart. One of the carriers started disassembling as well. The three ships took the bulk of the blast. Their shield was already down on the way here. It was just too much for them.
The last battlecruiser and the second carrier kept on moving downward at full velocity. On the ground, Narud watched in horror as the two ships were coming straight at him.
All of his void shades fired at the two ships fanatically, even if they were facing other enemies that were about to rip them apart. The S-3s reloaded as well and fired another round. Finally, this time, both ships collapsed.
Before Narud could take a breather, a mothership and two tempests came in over the breach...
